


Group Healing

by Delly_WithAPen



Series: Group Therapy [2]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Antagonistic Junko Enoshima, Control Issues, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/F, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, Male Fujisaki Chihiro, Mild Language, Minor Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:00:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 38
Words: 46,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21696571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Delly_WithAPen/pseuds/Delly_WithAPen
Summary: As the sequel to "Group Trauma" (formerly known as Group Therapy because I didn't plan on making this piece so long), this time I will be delving into resolutions to the issues that surfaced. Granted, the story will still focus a lot on Tenko, but I'll give more time to others as well.
Relationships: Chabashira Tenko/Tsumiki Mikan, Enoshima Junko/Tsumiki Mikan, Iruma Miu/K1-B0, Ishimaru Kiyotaka/Oowada Mondo, Koizumi Mahiru/Saionji Hiyoko (unrequited), Maizono Sayaka/Naegi Makoto, Sonia Nevermind/Tanaka Gundham
Series: Group Therapy [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1563400
Comments: 85
Kudos: 132





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the second part of "Group Therapy", which received a massive amount of attention I never expected! Thank you for your kind words on my work! It means a lot to me :)

“It’s been a week, Kaede,” Great Gozu closed his logbook, “I know myself and the other teachers aren’t here often, but when we are, it’s expected that you all come to class.”  


“I’m sorry, Mr. Gozu. She hasn’t left her room at all since, um, something personal came up, and-”  


“She got dumped!” Miu yelled, “And everytime I walk by her room, it sounds fucking haunted, with weeping and ‘Why’s and shit.”  


Kokichi shrugged, “At least we know her ghost is still here, if she died.”  


“Don’t be so insensitive, you two!”  


“Kaede’s right,” Rantaro faced them from behind himself, “This is probably Tenko’s very first relationship, and look what happened.”  


Miu stood up, “Whoa, hey now, that’s not on me, okay? It was plas-tits Barbie who recorded us and fucked with the audio!”  


“Is Junko going to face ANY consequences for her actions, Mr. Gozu?”  


The man looked at Shuichi, “Honestly, probably not enough punishment. She’s been held in detention, suspended, arrested, but the Headmaster’s never expelled her.”  


“That’s bullshit!” Kaito slammed a hand on his desk, “She’s making this place a living hell for everyone! Do you know how many times she’s tried to kill some of us?”  


“She set a practice dummy on fire in the dojo.”  


“She tried to dismantle me for my parts!”  


“She sent her sister to assassinate my clients as a distraction while she replaced my cleaning supplies with blood and salt water.”  


“Nyeh, she stole my blood to prank Kirumi.”  


“Ah, me too! Bloody buddies~”  


Great Gozu waved his hands, “Okay, okay, I understand the severity of Miss Enoshima’s ill behavior, and I wish I had the authority to do something about it. But because of frequent travelling and independent study, I don’t have the same power as teachers in regular schools. I’m sorry.”  


The class remained quiet, and lessons proceeded. Kiibo would occasionally redirect Miu’s attention back to her book, after he caught her doodling cartoon characters in her notebook. Ryoma excused himself to the bathroom, and came back ten minutes later smelling of cigarette smoke. After Kaito fell asleep, Kokichi drew a moustache and monocle on his face in red marker, while Himiko slept untouched. Eventually, the bell rang, and everyone departed for lunch.  


“Math is very hard,” Gonta sighed.  


Miu scoffed, “What? Math is like super fuckin’ easy! English is the worst!”  


“I’d care to disagree,” Korekiyo pulled his mask back over his nose, “Foreign languages are quite fascinating to learn, as they require both memorization when matching words from a previous tongue, and structural pattern thinking to form proper grammar.”  


“Talk like a normal person for once!”  


Himiko swallowed a bite of food, “I hate gym class…”  


“What? But gym class lets Gonta run fast again!”  


“Not all of us are strong and fast like you, Gonta,” Tsumugi smiled.  


Kaede noticed Kirumi walk by with a plate of food, “Oh, Kirumi, I can take that to Tenko. You stay and eat.”  


“That is not necessary, I am perfectly content with carrying out this task.”  


“But-But I insist! I need to talk to her, anyway.”  


Kirumi conceded, and Kaede left the cafeteria in stride. On her way to Tenko’s room, she spotted Peko and Aoi with plates of their own.  


“What are you guys doing out here?”  


Aoi held up her food, “I was going to bring this to Tenko, and see if she would come out.”  


“So was I. Akane had tried a few times, but she’s sick today,” Peko adjusted her glasses.  


“We can all go together, then!” the girls walked side by side the rest of the way, talking about class lessons and progress in their single lives--of which Peko didn’t care to contribute--until they reached the 79-B girls’ dormitories.  


“What about Rantaro? He seems really nice.”  


Kaede laughed, “Yeah, but he has this strong ‘big brother’ vibe I can’t get past.”  


“Then… ooh! Maki’s cool and mysterious! You could try asking her out.”  


“I have a feeling she’d say no to any girl.”  


“Okay, one last person. Shuichi.”  


Kaede blinked, “Well, I don’t-I don’t know. I haven’t given him much thought as a potential partner.”  


“Seriously? You two are so close! And you’d be super cute together! Right, Peko?”  


She didn’t answer. Instead, the girl stopped in her tracks, “Do you hear that?”  


From afar, a pair of voices were yelling in tandem. Outside Tenko’s room was Akane, looking perfectly healthy, pulling at the girl’s legs while she clung to the doorframe.  


“YOU’RE GOING OUTSIDE AND GETTING OVER YOUR EX!”  


“NO! I CAN’T FACE HER! SHE HATES ME AND JUNKO’S OUT THERE!”  


“KID, I SWEAR I’LL DRAG YOU TO THE CAFETERIA MYSELF IF YOU DON’T LET GO!”  


“SOMEBODY HELP ME! MY ARMS ARE POPPING OUT OF MY SHOULDER SOCKETS!”  


“Akane!” Aoi set down her plate and ran over, “You can’t just use brute force on her this time! It’s a very delicate problem. That requires patience and tender care.”  


Akane dropped Tenko’s ankles, and the girl immediately fell to the floor on her face.  


“Oh my God! Tenko, are you okay?!” Kaede squatted down to gently lift her head, receiving a whine in response.  


“Mikan… I want Mikan…”


	2. Chapter 2

After choking down her bowl of rice, Tenko picked at the chicken Peko gave her. Every breakfast, lunch, and dinner delivered to her door would be found an hour later half-eaten and cold.  


“You’re going to have to eat all of it, honey,” Aoi rubbed her back, “Then we’ll walk you to class, okay? Come on, take a bite.”  


“You know, we were only able to get in because I took charge,” Akane spoke with her mouth full, “What's up with you, scaring us for a week straight like this?”  


Tenko leaned into Aoi’s side, “I’m sorry.”  


“It’s alright. None of us have ever seen you heartbroken this badly, so we thought giving you space was the right call. But now we know that you need us around.”  


“I guess so…”  


The girls ate in comfortable silence until every plate was empty. Kaede stayed in the room while the others waited outside for Tenko to clean herself up. She walked out a few minutes later, dressed, hair brushed, and face washed.  


“At least you still took showers and brushed your teeth this week.”  


“Showers are nice to cry in and I hate the feeling of a dirty mouth,” she frowned, “But I still need to get back into a routine. I’m completely lost without one.”  


Akane pulled her into a headlock, “You’ll find the rhythm again quickly, don’t worry.”  


"That's right," Aoi nodded, "But we should get going now."  


On their way to class, Kaede caught Tenko up on recent events.  


“So, Kaito kind of came out as straight Wednesday, when Kokichi kept flirting with him.”  


Peko crossed her arms, “How does someone kind of come out?”  


“I mean, straight people don’t really come out at all, but he jumped onto his desk and announced it like that. Then Angie strained her wrist from drawing a bunch of us.”  


“Oh no, is she okay?”  


“A little restless, but Mi-,” Kaede coughed, “I mean, the nurse said it should be healed within a few more days. Until then, no drawing, painting, sculpting, or writing. Mr. Gozu is nice enough to give her a copy of his powerpoints, though.”  


Tenko sighed, “Kaede, you don’t… have to avoid saying her name around me. I don’t want her to just disappear from my life, even though it hurts. Actually, I want to hear her name. I miss her.”  


“Ah, sorry about that.”  


“No, it’s okay. You’re always so considerate of us! I promise I appreciate the thought,” she turned her head away, “How has… she been lately?”  


Akane put a hand on her shoulder, making her flinch, “Let’s just say you both oughta talk soon.”  


“Alone,” Peko added.  


Tenko kept her concerns to herself the rest of the walk.  


“We’ll see you at dinner, right?”  


“Yeah, after, um, training.”  


“That’s the spirit, kid! See ya later!”  


The upperclassmen started back down the hall towards the staircase, leaving the girls outside their own classroom. Taking Tenko’s hand, Kaede reached for the door handle and slid it to the side.  


“SHE HAS RISEN!”  


“Quiet, Kokichi! You’ll just make her upset!” Kiibo smiled at her, “Welcome back, Tenko.”  


Tsumugi clasped her hands together, “I’m so happy you’re here!”  


“It’s good to see you again,” Rantaro waved.  


Angie threw her arms open, revealing a dark wrist brace on her right side, “My Tenko is back! This is a wonderful day!”  


“Eh? ‘My Tenko’?”  


“Of course, my Himiko! It’s short for ‘my friend, Tenko’, nyahahaha!” she stood from her chair, “Now, come give your Angie a hug~”  


Hesitantly, the girl walked over and rested her head on Angie’s shoulder, allowing her classmate to wrap her arms around her middle with a soft squeal.  


“Is it really a hug if you’re the one doing the work?” Maki murmured. Kaito reached over and wrapped his pinkie finger around her own, causing her to blush and pout in silence. Sitting in the back corner had its perk of privacy. Angie released her friend and sat back down, grinning from ear to ear. Tenko trudged to her desk and plopped into her seat with a slight smile on her face.  


At that moment, Great Gozu returned to the classroom, “Alright, class, let’s get back down to business. Ah, Tenko! I see you’re here today! I’ll have to change your absence to a simple tardy. Welcome back.”  


“Thank you.”  


“Now, we’ll move on to world history. Who can tell me the last Chinese emperor and dynasty?”  


Korekiyo raised his hand.  


“Other than Korekiyo, of course.”  


His hand lowered.  


“Anyone at all? Yes, Kirumi.”  


“In the Qing dynasty, Pu Yi was the last emperor of China, at two years old.”  


Kaito kicked his feet off his desktop, “How does a literal toddler rule a nation?! That’s like one of us--no. That’s like KOKICHI being the Ambassador of Japan!”  


Kokichi feigned offense, a hand flying to his chest, “Ouch, Kaito, I’m so hurt I could cry! And I’ll have you know that my organization is thriving under me.”  


“Hehehe, more like writhing under you. Ugh, SHIT! Sorry, sorry, my bad,” Miu threw her hands up in surrender, “Just move on with the damn lesson.”  


Great Gozu let out a sigh and turned on the projection monitor, “Thank you. So today, we will be learning about the fall of the Qing dynasty. Everyone should take notes. Angie, here is a copy of the presentation slides.”  


“Yes, yes, very fun and pretty font!”  


The class behaved relatively well--besides Kokichi drawing on Himiko and Miu passing notes to a flustered Kiibo. Great Gozu noticed her actions, but decided against addressing them. The last time he had made her read notes aloud was… memorable.


	3. Baby

Tenko wiped the sweat off her brow, “I didn’t think I’d fall back this much after just a week.”  


“But we don’t do average workouts, anyway. You’re still ripped.”  


“Aoi told me you were able to go to class today,” Sakura patted her on the back, “I’m relieved to see you here.”  


“Ahaha, it feels good to be back with you guys after so long! I… I really missed you all.”  


Akane snuck up behind her with a twisted towel, drawing out a yelp when she cracked it against the girl’s rear. Tenko spun around, red-faced, and chased after her “attacker”. With a sigh, Maki lifted her legs onto the bench as they passed. She slipped on her shoes and parted her long hair into pigtails, still damp from the post-training shower.  


Peko walked by and took a seat beside her, “I was informed of your prior association with a client of Kirumi’s.”  


She paused for a moment, “That's right. If you’re looking to provide any sympathy-”  


“On the contrary,” the young woman’s eyes flitted, a piercing gaze making a silent threat, “I intend to offer my services.”  


“Your services, after knowing how similar our talents are?”  


“Well, you’ve been reevaluated as a Child Caregiver, correct? You still possess the skills of an assassin, but utilizing those skills will only cause you trouble. My connections to the Kuzuryuu clan are very beneficial to protecting me from legal consequences.”  


Maki looked away, nibbling her bottom lip, “Why are offering this to me? What do you want out of it?”  


“What do I want?” she parroted, “I simply wish to help you. There’s no need to return this favor, or even accept it. Just consider it an opportunity.”  


“I’ll think about it,” she stood and walked toward the door, “And… thank you. For the thought.”  


“Of course,” her lips pulled into a small smile.  


After finally getting dressed, Akane led Tenko to the cafeteria, the other girls having already left. They talked about their friends and different weapons, nunchucks being Tenko’s favorite while Akane preferring grappling hooks.  


“But you could practically fly with a grappling hook! That’s awesome!”  


“Can’t you already scale walls with parkour? I’ve seen you outside my window in class,” she scratched her head.  


Akane groaned, “That’s totally different, though, ‘cause you have to do all the work. But with a grappling hook-!”  


Suddenly, Tenko stopped, just in front of the cafeteria doors. A sign caught her eye; a buffed, wooden sign with bold letters burned into it stood on a tall metal stand.  


Akane sneered, kicking the plank of wood to shatter against a nearby wall, “No little babies allowed, huh? Bitch. Come on, Tenko, watch me beat the snot out of her!”  


She grabbed the girl’s wrist to pull her in, but Tenko ripped it away, her hands trembling.  


“Tenko? Come on, don’t let it get to you, kid.”  


“I can’t-I can’t go in,” she sunk to her knees, “I can’t do it.”  


“Hey, woah, woah, it’s alright. How ‘bout this? I go in first and make a scene by punching her face a few times, while you walk in after and no one will notice!”  


“Mikan will notice. She always looks to any exit every few minutes.”  


“And so what if she sees you? She’d never hurt a fly-”  


“But SHE got hurt!” Tenko flinched at her own volume, “I let her get hurt so many times, by a… by a B-word. What if she’s disappointed in me? What if she really believes in that fake conversation? What if-”  


“Tenko,” Akane takes a deep breath, and kneels in front of her, “Mikan didn’t believe it for a second. But she knows why it was made, and I bet that was Junko’s intention all along.”  


“What do you mean?”  


“Oh, kid, I really, really don’t want to tell you this. Actually, I wish this didn’t happen at all, if I’m completely honest. But Mikan is…”  


Tenko watched her friend’s lips move, and she could swear sound came out, but what did the sounds mean? She couldn’t process what was said. It was static. It was white noise. It meant nothing to her.  


“Tenko? You alright?”  


She wanted to say “No”. She wanted to tell Akane that she couldn’t hear anything she just said. And for some reason, she wanted to cry and scream and lock herself in her bedroom again, until everything around her dissipated into a void of empty thoughts. Instead, she felt bile rise in her throat, and ran to the nearest bathroom.  


For a while, she was alone, unable to hear anything but herself occasionally spitting into the toilet bowl beneath her. Then, footsteps appeared, and grew louder and louder until a voice joined them.  


“Tenko? Are you okay in there?” Chiaki called out, “Akane came into the cafeteria and started yelling at Junko. She said you came here after hearing they-”  


More weird static. There must have been something wrong with her hearing. A knocking on her stall pulled her back into reality.  


“Junko’s gone back to the Headmaster about the sign, too, so you can come eat in there with all of your classmates. Akane went with her to deal with the couple hits she gave her during the yelling.”  


Tenko stood up and opened the stall door a crack, “Do you promise that… no one will talk about the sign?”  


Chiaki nodded with a tired look in her eyes, “Mhm, no one else even saw it. You’ll be safe, I promise.”  


“Chiaki… am I a baby?” she whispered.  


The girl furrowed her brows, “I can’t see any correlation between you and an infant, no. Babies are usually helpless on their own and need others to feed them, clothe them, wash them, etcetera. You’re also very physically capable of defending yourself against dangers, and quite smart. The only thing I can think of is your ability to read emotions extremely well. If that’s meant to be a part of an insult, Tenko, it’s not a very good one.”  


“But, I cry too much, and need a schedule to function, and-and-”  


“I don’t know if there’s any real estimate on crying. If there is, a lot of us definitely don’t cry enough, and aren’t in a healthy range, either. Plus, schedules are made for a reason, I think. It’s okay to rely on routine.”  


Tenko opened the door wider, “You think so?”  


“Yeah, it’s no big deal. And no one would say you’re a baby because of it. No one whose opinion matters, anyways.”  


Hesitantly, the girl stepped out of the stall. She smiled, and followed her upperclassman to the cafeteria. Chiaki gently pushed the door open, and let her walk through first.  


“Ah, there you are, Tenko~” Angie waved, gaining a few nervous glances from their classmates, “Will you help me make a rough sketch, please?”  


“You’re really antsy about drawing again, huh?” she slid in the empty seat beside the girl, picking up a pencil and slowly ran it along the page to create a stick figure.  


“Of course! So many ideas and no way to let them out? I just might go crazy!”  


Miu blew on her soup, “Too late.”  


“Miu, don’t be mean,” Kiibo poked her, “What if you couldn’t keep track of your ideas of any new inventions?”  


“Yeah, yeah, alright. You got me there,” Miu chewed a bite too big for her, a pattern of crumbs left on her cheeks. Kiibo sighed with a loving smile and wiped them away. His girlfriend blushed at the affection, squeezing her eyes shut in embarrassment. Tenko watched the exchange, but felt nothing. The same feeling that fizzled in her chest when Akane and Chiaki tried to tell her that Mikan and Junko were-


	4. Chapter 4

“Hello?”  


“Tenko! You picked up today!”  


“Master? What are you talking about?”  


The voice on the other end let out a long breath, “I’ve tried to call you almost every day last week, but you never picked up! I was worried you were upset with me for joining you to get ice cream, and didn’t want to disturb you by visiting. I want to apologize for butting in like that, I was just so anxious to meet the young lady who had stolen my beloved student’s heart! Unfortunately, I only met your friend, Mikan. She was very lovely, though.”  


“Um, Master, Mikan WAS the girl you were looking for.”  


“...What?”  


“The ice cream trip was actually our third date.”  


“...What?”  


“That’s why we were both wearing pink. To look like a… a couple.”  


There was a long pause, “Master?”  


“So you mean to say… the girl I laughed with and had a wonderful time meeting… was the very same temptress that I had nightmares about?”  


“You had nightmares about Mikan?”  


“Well, I mean, not MIKAN, per say, just a demonic entity that hypnotized you with her charms to move far away from me and leave me all alone in the temple until I grew old and died.”  


“Master, that would never happen. If Hope’s Peak Academy was too far from the temple, I wouldn’t have even enrolled. We talked about this.”  


“I know, I know. I just…” he sighed into the receiver, “It’s hard to accept that you’re nearly an adult, sweetie. First going off to live independently in school dorms, now you’ve got a girlfriend. Everything’s moving so fast!”  


Tenko closed her eyes, “About that, though. Mikan and I… had a falling out.”  


“What? What happened? Are you okay, dear?”  


“I’m-I’m alright, I just need to sort through some feelings,” she sniffled, “there’s a girl here that isn’t very nice, and she broke up with Mikan last year, but now she did things to break us apart, and-”  


“Who. Is. This. Girl?”  


“No, it’s okay, Master, you don’t have to get involved.”  


“I said that if the girl is abusive, you go to someone for help. But if this other woman is hurting MY precious little flower, AND her lovely girlfriend, I will march right up to that school and give her a piece of my mind!”  


“It’s really complicated, though! She wouldn’t get in trouble for it. The teachers aren’t around often and the Headmaster lets her go for some reason.”  


“Then I’ll just have to have a few words with this Headmaster, that girl be damned!”  


“I can handle it on my own, I promise!” after a pause, she continued, “Please, let me prove that I can solve my own problems without you or the priests.”  


He took a deep breath, “Okay, Tenko. But just know that asking for help later doesn’t make you weak, or deserving of being mistreated. Understand?”  


“Yes, Master. Thank you.”  


“I love you very much, dear. I always will.”  


“I love you, too. Bye.”  


“Goodbye.”  


Tenko closed her flip phone with a smack, and stood from her bed. As she approached her door, she could hear muffled voices and shuffling footsteps from the other side. She opened the door, and saw Himiko dramatically dipping Angie with a rose in her mouth, Rantaro--supposedly--listening to someone on his phone, and Kaito peering through a glass as if it were a telescope. In front of them, Kaede stood with a guilty smile.  


“Hey, Tenko, we wanted to check on you after dinner, but you left pretty quickly.”  


“Oh, yeah, I just needed to take a call. It turns my Master had been trying to reach me all week, and wanted to talk a bit.”  


Just then, Rantaro’s own phone began ringing right next to his ear.  


He looked to see the caller I.D. before awkwardly bringing it back to his ear and saying, “I’ll talk to you later,” and taking off down the hallway.  


“Very natural, Rantaro,” Himiko called after him. Her arms were already starting to give out, and her back had been slowly bending over to the point Angie’s hair was touching the floor.  


Kaito walked over, “Well, just know that we’re all here for ya! Even the guys!”  


“Thank you, but you don’t have to look out for me like this. I just want to stay out of Junko’s way and move on from Mikan right now.”  


Kaede grasped her hand, “Is that what you really want, or is it what you think Junko wants?”  


They ignored the crash behind her, Himiko’s groans letting them know the two fell.  


“I KNOW it’s what she wants. Why else would she be acting like this the second we started seeing each other? Look,” Tenko pulled away, “maybe what Junko wants is for the best. She has all the power, and…”  


“...And you don’t want Mikan to be hurt as collateral.”  


She nodded, “If I stay away from them, she won’t get hurt. That’s what the warnings had to mean, right?”  


“Warnings?” Angie asked from the floor, “What kind of warnings?”  


“The ones in the dojo and bathroom.”  


Kaede put a finger to her mouth in thought, “Maki told me about the practice dummy with your picture, but I don’t remember anything about a bathroom threat.”  


“Kokichi told me about a picture of Mikan and Junko from last year taped to a stall door. It had burnt edges, so I thought it was supposed to be linked to the dojo fire.”  


“That’s probable,” Rantaro spoke as he strolled back to the group, “The picture of Junko and Mikan together would show that she wants Mikan back, and for your picture to be engulfed in flames… It doesn’t look friendly.”  


“Junko’s a freaking nutcase!” Kaito’s face was frozen between anger and fear.  


Himiko frowned at Rantaro, “Where’d you go, anyway?”  


“Ah, that. Just something with my mother. You know how it is,” he laughed.  


The girl simply stared at him, before turning her attention to Tenko, “You should talk to Mikan alone soon. I don’t think she’s happy at all.”  


“Ooh! We could all do another session~”  


“Sorry, Angie,” Kaede turned around, “This seems more like a one-on-one thing.”  


“Ugh, how long are you all going to stay here?!” a feminine voice screeched from around the corner, “GO AWAY!”  


Another voice, much softer, whispered unintelligibly. Suddenly, Mahiru stepped out from her hiding spot and waved.  


“Hey, guys! Sorry about that. We were just waiting to see Rantaro and Tenko for something.”  


Kaede smiled, “That’s okay, we finished now. Come on over!”  


The young woman looked back to the corner and gestured for someone to come out. They must have refused, because Mahiru gestured again until she reached over to pull her friend into view. In a bright pink kimono stood a tall, beautiful woman with long blonde hair in a high ponytail that curled to the side. Her face was obscured by a sleeve over her mouth in embarrassment. The pair walked over to them.  


“What do you say?” Mahiru nudged her.  


“I’m… I’m sorry for the things I said last week.”  


Tenko’s brows furrowed in confusion, “Sorry, I don’t think we’ve ever even met before.”  


Rantaro chuckled, and turned to the mysterious lady, “It’s no problem, Hiyoko. Thank you for apologizing.”  


Wait a second. Tenko’s eyes flickered back to the woman, her mouth hanging open.  


“HIYOKO?!”


	5. Hiyoko's Lament

“Oh my Atua, she actually fainted,” Himiko mumbled, poking the girl’s cheek.  


Mahiru looked worried, “Should we take her to the infirmary? After all that with Junko…”  


“No, just put her in her bed. She should be fine.”  


Kaede crossed her arms, “If you say that, then you shouldn’t mind watching her until she wakes up.”  


“What?! I’m not even in her class!”  


Himiko picked at her ear, “It was you that made her faint, though.”  


With a groan, Hiyoko stepped over Tenko’s body and dragged her by her arms next to the bed. She squatted down, hooked her elbows under the girl’s knees and shoulders, and hefted her up onto the mattress. Hiyoko sat on the edge of the bed, out of breath, and glared at the group.  


“Ah, it was just a joke. You don’t have to stay. My room is right over there.”  


“I’m not moving,” she leaned back on her arms, “and you can’t make me.”  


Mahiru walked through the doorway and took a seat in Tenko’s desk chair, “I’ll keep her company, and out of trouble. We’ll be fine.”  


Kaede gave a nervous smile, “Oh, okay then. Um, good night!”  


Once the door closed, Mahiru turned to her friend, “So, why did you decide to stay? And don’t say because you’re too tired to walk back. I know for a fact that your steps are bigger than mine now.”  


“Alright, fine,” Hiyoko adjusted her sash, “I was gonna talk to Tenko when she woke up, okay?”  


“About what?”  


She didn’t answer, and the pair sat in silence for a few moments until Hiyoko looked over at Tenko’s desk drawers.  


“What do you think she keeps in there?”  


“You’re not snooping around our underclassman’s belongings again,” Mahiru blocked the drawers with her leg.  


“Come on, Big Sis!”  


“You’re older than me, and taller.”  


“You love being called ‘Big Sis’, though,” she pouted, “Just a little peek in one? Please?”  


Mahiru glanced to Tenko, still unconscious in bed, then turned her attention back to Hiyoko and sighed, “If I let you open a drawer, you will not mention it again, nor keep asking to snoop elsewhere, alright?”  


“Deal~” Hiyoko leaped onto the floor and rushed over to the largest drawer on the bottom. Mahiru huffed in mock annoyance, while keeping her eyes on the drawer while Hiyoko’s long fingers wrapped around the shallow handle carved into the top of the lid and pulled.  


“Wait, what's this?” she reached into the drawer and pulled out a book. There was no title or intricate design on the hard cover, just a dark blue color. Hiyoko opened it to a random page.  


“‘Dear Diary-’oh,” she blinked, “So that’s what this is.”  


“No, no, no, no,” Mahiru grabbed it out of the girl’s hands, “You are absolutely NOT reading Tenko’s journal.”  


“You never let me do anything!”  


“This is a very private thing! I know you wouldn’t want anyone to read something so personal of yours!”  


“I’d let YOU read it!” Hiyoko stomped back to the bed and jumped onto it, accidentally landing on Tenko’s legs. The girl grunted from the impact, her head moving side to side and her eyes cracking open.  


She lifted her head groggily, “What are you guys doing here?”  


“You fainted after seeing my growth spurt, and Kaede wanted to make sure you didn’t go into a coma or whatever,” Hiyoko’s demeanor suddenly softened, “Also, I wanted to talk a little, since we have somewhat of a connection in this shitty place.”  


“You mean because we’re both les-”  


“Don’t say it out loud! Ugh, that word just doesn’t sound right to me. But yes, technically I am a girl who exclusively likes other girls and not boys. Let’s just leave it at that.”  


“Oh, okay. So, what do you want to talk about?”  


Hiyoko fidgeted with her long sleeves, “I know I said terrible things to you and Mikan, but I… didn’t really mean it. They just came out of my mouth.”  


“Kind of like Miu.”  


“You could say that, but I think she actually has a better excuse than just feeling defensive.”  


Mahiru watched the two interact from the sidelines, nibbling her bottom lip. Hiyoko had never acted so emotionally vulnerable to anyone but her since they met as first-years. Not even to any of their other friends.  


“I want to tell you that Mikan… isn’t doing so well. I don’t usually care about her, and she’s still fun to pick on, but this has happened before. She’ll sleep in Junko’s room and eat with her and be weirder than usual. And I can’t do anything with that crazy bitch breathing down her neck! If you go and talk to her tomorrow, I promise I’ll back off a little.”  


Tenko gulped, hiding her shaky hands under her blanket, “If I go near her, she’ll just get hurt.”  


“She’s already getting hurt, Tenko,” Mahiru carefully put the girl’s book on her desk and walked over, sitting next to her, “You haven’t seen her in a week, right? You don’t know what she looks like right now?”  


“No. Is it… Is it really bad?”  


The girls exchanged glances before looking back at her, “I don’t know how to put it lightly. She’s… weaker, I’ll say. Not very awake or lively, she might have lost some weight, and I’ve caught her limping more than once. We’re all worried about her.”  


Shock and pain flashed over Tenko’s face, and she pulled her head into her hands, “What do I do? Junko wanted me to stay away and I did, because I thought Mikan would be safer. But now she’s still getting hurt? How could a single girl be so cruel to another human being?”  


Mahiru wrapped her arms around the younger girl, “It’s a very tough situation for the both of you, but you’re not alone in this. You two have us, and everyone in Junko’s class on your side.”  


“Can’t we just-Can’t we just all go to the Headmaster about her? Or maybe… call the police?”  


“Trust me, we tried that last year,” Hiyoko grimaced, “But she has something over the school board's heads, because it didn’t work and WE got in trouble.”  


They talked and vented their frustrations until Mahiru’s phone buzzed a notification.  


“It’s 8:30 already?! I have to check my photos in the red room!” with a ‘goodbye’, she rushed out of the room, leaving Hiyoko alone with Tenko for the first time.  


“Uh, yeah, so,” she stammered, “you know you can, like, talk to the upperclassmen for help in stuff, right?”  


“Mhm!” the girl smiled, “Can I go to you, too?”  


“Me? Why? I called you ‘dog face’ last week and your girlfriend ‘pig barf’.”  


“Yeah, but you apologized. And… I trust you.”  


“That’s a dumb mistake.”  


Tenko shook her head, a smile still on her face, “You didn’t read my diary, right?”  


Red-faced, Hiyoko grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her, “YOU WERE AWAKE THE WHOLE TIME?!”  


“Ah! No, I wasn’t!” Tenko struggled out of the girl’s hold, “You’re just not very quiet is all.”  


“Oh, I-um, I see. Well, as long as you were really out when I dragged you in here!”  


“That was you? I mean, thank you, but I just didn’t expect…”  


“Now you owe me a favor. I’ll come and find you when the time is right,” she stood up, “Until then, just go back to sleep.”  


“But it’s only 8:30-”  


“I SAID GO TO SLEEP!”


	6. Chapter 6

Breakfast the next morning was loud and painful. Kokichi had recently challenged Gundham’s talent as an animal breeder, to which the man retaliated by unleashing a swarm of birds into the cafeteria. Windows shattered against the force of hawks, crows, and pheasants. Cuckoos nipped ears and hair, while chickens pecked at feet. Amongst the cries of terror, Gundham laughed maniacally.  


“Fools! You thought your fragile fortress could protect you from the fury of my minions of the skies?!” he shouted atop his class’ table, but his shoes had dirtied from a pile of fruit and yogurt. Across the room, Teruteru stared at the mess, his face expressionless. Then, he grew angry, and shook a steak knife at Gundham.  


“NOW HOL’ ON HERE YOU DAMN HIPPIE-GOTH MUMMY! YOU’S BETTER MOSEY ON BACK TO DAT DERE WOODS WIT’ ALL YOUR FRIENDS BEFORE I TURN ‘EM INTO TONIGHT’S STEW!”  


“You better not harm any of these animals, Teruteru,” Peko pulled her wooden sword out of its black bag strapped to her back, “or else.”  


Kokichi was busy running around with his cell phone, laughing and filming the event. He stopped to zoom in on Sonia, who appeared to have not yet noticed the chaos around her. He could hear deep octaves of a heavy metal song through her thick pink headphones. She kept her eyes fluttered closed, her peaceful face savoring a bite of pastry. Beside her, Ibuki was tossing handfuls of her cereal to a small gathering of pigeons on the table.  


Several students had left, including Makoto and Sayaka while Mondo stayed with Kiyotaka as he attempted to regain order.  


“Everyone! Please remain calm!” he shouted over the screams and curses, “Let us all evacuate the room while Gundham takes care of his-oof!”  


Suddenly, a great bustard crashed into his chest, sending his whole body backwards to collapse in a heap on the befeathered floor.  


“Taka!” Mondo dropped a pair of chickens he had just separated from a fight, running to his partner. He helped the boy to his feet, and jumped onto the nearest table.  


“EVERYONE GET THE FUCK OUT!”  


Once the cafeteria was cleared of students, Gundham was forced to release his guests back outside. Teachers ordered himself and Kokichi to clean the mess left behind.  


“Mom~ Can you help me please?” Kokichi whined with puppy-dog eyes. Kirumi took a step forward before Great Gozu blocked her.  


“Oh no, you don’t! You caused this trouble, now you have to fix it. Just because Kirumi is a maid doesn’t mean you can take advantage of her,” he pushed a broom into the boy’s hands, “I won’t mark you tardy if you come into class in the next hour.”  


As everyone walked to their own classes, Mikan snuck out of her lab to join her friends, a heavy layer of eyeshadow brushed over her face and a new bandage covering her cheek. With a sad smile, Ibuki pulled her into a gentle hug, while Mahiru rubbed her back and Hiyoko looked away shamefully. Tenko stood outside the classroom and watched. Himiko stuck her head out of the room and tugged at her arm. The girl walked forward, never taking her eyes off of the group.  


An hour into their lessons, Great Gozu checked his watch. By lunch, Kokichi still hadn’t come in.  


“Where is that boy?” he followed his students to the cafeteria, only to find the room spotless, “He must be out by the Reserve Course again. Everyone, stay here. I’ll be right back.”  


Maki frowned, “Why does he keep going over there? He gets beaten up every time because he can’t learn to keep his mouth shut.”  


To her left, Kaito scratched his head, “I don’t know, there’s probably someone important to him, like a friend over there.”  


“That’s right!” Tsumugi picked at her food, “Reserve Course students can’t come to this area, so the only way for them to see each other is if Kokichi went to him!”  


“Huh? How do you know he’s visiting a guy?”  


“Think about it. This is forbidden love at its finest!”  


Kiibo turned to Miu, who was scribbling schematics in her notebook, “I thought she said we were forbidden love last month?”  


“What is forbidden love?” Gonta asked, “Love is always beautiful. Why is beautiful thing forbidden?”  


Beside him, Ryoma pulled down his hat, “Sometimes society will try to get in the way of people’s happiness, because they see some forms of love as ‘wrong’ or ‘unnatural’. Other times, two people can try to fight against fate that destined them to stay apart. It’s those times that make us afraid to get close to someone.”  


“You got that right,” Rantaro muttered bitterly. The class sat in awkward silence before the cafeteria doors opened, Great Gozu escorting Kokichi to his seat. The boy had a bloody tissue pressed against his nose and messy hair. His uniform was scuffed, as though he were shoved onto concrete. Despite his worn appearance, he wore a satisfied smirk.  


“I don’t want to see you near that boy again, Kokichi. Understand?”  


“Oh, I hear you crystal clear, sir~” he took a bite of grilled fish and hummed happily.  


Kaede reached across the table and gently grasped his chin, “What happened to you? Are you okay?”  


He leaned out of her hand, “How could I NOT be okay, when I just pulled the best prank of my whole career?!”  


“What did you do this time?”  


“Geez, Himiko, try to hold your excitement,” he rolled his eyes, “But, if you really want to know, I put all the feathers I collected into a glitter bomb and put it under one of the toilet seats in the boys’ bathroom. It was absolutely worth the punch he gave me with his pants down! Nishishishi!”  


Tsumugi deflated, “So… you didn’t go out to meet a handsome rich boy with a dark past?”  


“What? No, what gave you that idea?”  


Tenko made a face, “So you’re telling us that you go over there several times a month just to terrorize students that can’t chase you back here? That’s awful!”  


“Hey, I’m an evil dictator bent on ruling the world! Why would I be nice?” he countered. Shuichi studied his face, looking for any flicker of deception, before his attention was drawn back to Kaede.  


“Well, mister evil dictator, we’re going back to apologize after school today.”  


“Aww, you know, I totally would,” he stuffs his face with his lunch, “bu’ ahm goona hab oo ‘ake a rain jeck.”  


“Ew, close your mouth when you eat!” Tenko turned her head away in disgust, “Why are boys so gross?”  


She then looked at Himiko, her own mouth full, who replied, “I dunno. ‘Dey jus’ are.”  


“Himiko, please don’t do that!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PSA: It's hard to write dialogue for someone while they're eating. I did my best.


	7. Club Activities

“Three… Two… One! Yahoo!” Angie jumped out of her seat, staring at the wall clock, “It is time!”  


Korekiyo looked at her, bemused, “I assume you are referring to the minimal time limit of your art restriction?”  


“Yes!” she fiddled with the wrist brace until the straps were loose and ripped it off, throwing it into a nearby garbage bin.  


“While I’m happy to see you so excited, Angie,” Great Gozu smiled, “We still have another hour together.”  


“Ah, right, right, yes, yes. I will be quiet like a little mouse~”  


“Thank you, dear. Now then, who can tell me if they remember what a pronumeral is?”  


Kirumi waited five seconds for the teacher to call on someone, before raising her hand.  


“Kirumi, I appreciate your hard work, but I can’t call on you and Korekiyo every time. So, I’m just going to choose a random student until someone else can give me an answer.”  


Most of the class immediately flipped through their notebooks to find the introductory algebra lessons. Shuichi, Kaede, Tsumugi, and Ryoma all raised their hands, along with Kiibo, Tenko, and Rantaro.  


“Hmm, that’s better. Shuichi, since I saw your hand go up first, please tell me what a pronumeral is.”  


“Um, a pronumeral is a letter used in place of a numeral in an equation or formula?”  


“Very good,” he continued with the lesson by teaching them how to solve equations with variables on both sides. His explanation was interrupted, however, by a loud snore in the middle of the room.  


“MIU IRUMA!”  


Her head shot up, “I can do it! I can… what?”  


“Please, try to stay awake for the next twenty minutes, okay?”  


She groaned, “If it’s just twenty minutes left, can’t I leave now?”  


Great Gozu mimicked her exasperation, “If it’s just twenty minutes left, can’t you quietly pay attention to my lesson?”  


Kiibo placed a hand over hers, “If you take all the notes, I’ll stay with you all night in your lab.”  


Miu’s face heated up, and she quickly turned away, “Fine! I’ll shut up now!”  


In front of her, Tenko hid her face in her hands. Everywhere she looked, cute couples would be flirting shamelessly. During the last couple of days outside of her room, she noticed that Makoto and Sayaka referred to each in pet names more often than their own. Kiyotaka seemed determined to domesticate Mondo, while his boyfriend had actually been successful in bringing out a “bad” side to him; he’d even gotten the boy to ride on the back of his motorcycle in the teachers’ parking lot. Ibuki was a very proud girlfriend of that mysterious upperclassman Tenko could never catch out of disguise. Feeding each other at lunch, laughing together on the roof, holding hands through the halls… it was so painful to watch.  


“Tenko? Class is over now,” a feminine voice drew her back to reality, and she turned to embrace the girl by her waist. A hand caressed the top of her head, and smoothed out her hair. Tenko breathed in the scent of apples and vanilla. Kaede.  


Another voice piped up behind her, “Yeah, something’s definitely up. Come on, Tencrotch, we’re going out.”  


She asked where they would be going, but her question was muffled by Kaede’s blazer against her face. Fortunately, the others must have understood her regardless.  


“Girls’ night~” Angie clapped, “Except, it will just be us five. Tsumugi and Kirumi are busy and Himiko is too tired.”  


Tenko pulled away from her friend’s body, “I have training.”  


“No, you don’t,” behind her, Maki crossed her arms, “Sakura texted me that the dojo will be closed until tomorrow.”  


“What? Why? I need to-I need to get-”  


Miu leaned into her personal space, “What you NEED is to get fuckin’ LAID, bitch! We’re going to a strip club.”  


The girl looked around frantically at her friends, a nervous smile stretched across her face, “Ehehe, you… you can’t be serious. We’re all minors, they’d never let us in!”  


“Oh, don’t worry about that, thunder thighs,” a plastic card was shoved against her chest, “I’ve been waiting to break these babies out since winter break!”  


She grabbed the card and studied it, “‘Age: 23?’ Is this a fake drivers’ license?! Kaede, how are you on board with this?!”  


“Miu said this might cheer us up. And it does sound kind of fun,” she giggled, showing off her own card.  


“Maki, you too?”  


The girl sighed, “I’m only joining you all to supervise, since Miss Class Rep here can’t be trusted around a room full of women.”  


“Hey, you make it sound like I’m a pervert! There’s no harm in looking for love in the dark crevices of the city.”  


Desperately, Tenko looked to the last girl--her last potential ally--for support, “A-Angie?”  


“Atua is very excited to see what lovely ladies we will meet tonight~”  


Miu grinned wickedly, “Alright, get something slutty to wear, and we’ll be on our way!”  


“And that’s how I got here,” Tenko stirred her glass of water at the bar, and fiddled with a button of her blouse, “Just, please don’t tell anyone I’m not supposed to be here. I want to go home, but not at the expense of my friends getting kicked out.”  


The woman beside puffed out cigarette smoke, “I hear ya, sister. I was young once, too. So, now that you’re here, are you gonna try to at least have a good time like your little friend there?”  


Tenko turned around to see Kaede mesmerized by a pole dancer’s performance, Maki grimacing at the floor as she handed a few bills over to be thrown. On Kaede’s other side, Miu smiled lovingly at her phone, most likely reading a message from Kiibo. It was as if she were in her own little world, like all of the half-naked strippers were invisible. Angie was nowhere to be seen.  


She sighed, and returned to her drink, “I don’t think anyone here will make me feel like that. No offense, Miss Cherry. I just want this one girl at school. Er, I guess I should say that I want her back, after her ex broke us apart.”  


Cherry whistled, “Now there’s a story I just gotta hear. How about we take this to a private room, hm? It’s much quieter and more private in case you feel like… you know.”  


“Okay. It’s not like I won’t have even less of a fun time, right?” she let the dancer guide her to a row of rooms guarded by large men in tight black T-shirts. Wordlessly, one of them let the pair through to a spacious room with a long couch. At the edge, Tenko retold the story of Junko planting burnt images and editing conversations, only to abuse Mikan once again while she was helpless to stop it.  


“So, what should I do? Everyone keeps telling me to talk to her in private, but there’s no way Junko won’t find out and do something. But I also know that I can’t just do nothing, either. Mikan needs me.”  


Cherry hummed, “I think this Mikan of yours is pretty lucky to have such a faithful doll like you stick around. Kinda makes me jealous, hahaha!”  


“What?! But you’re so pretty and kind, anyone single would be foolish not to give you a chance!”  


She let out a low chuckle, and stroked the girl under her chin, letting her thumb run over a pair of slightly parted lips. Leaning closer, she slowly closed the distance until her own mouth stopped short of touching Tenko’s, whose eyes have widened in shock.  


In a husky voice, she whispered, “It’s been an hour, baby. That’ll be one thousand for my services.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * 1,000 yen is the equivalent of $9.14 in America.
> 
> Cue the shooting star //The More You Know//


	8. Old Habits

“I BETTER NOT SEE ANY OF YOU BRATS HERE AGAIN, YOU HEAR ME?!”  


“That was simply divine! I may never be able to wear this dress ever again because of the fire, but it was worth the precious memories I made tonight with my friends~ Nyahahaha!” Angie patted down her singed strapless, a phone number smeared across her forearm.  


“So,” Maki said as the group walked out, “I saw you go into a private room with one of the dancers.”  


Tenko flinched, “Oh! Uh, yeah.”  


Angie gasped, “Ah you did?! Did you have fun?!”  


“We just talked, nothing big happened or anything-OW!”  


Miu, after punching Tenko in the back of her head, sneered, “I turned down an evening with my boyfriend and took your ass to a goddamn strip joint after you spent a week in your room, and you go to a private room with a dancer to TALK?! What the fuck is wrong with you?! Even Kaede took the stick out of her ass tonight!”  


Hanging off Maki’s shoulder, Kaede lifted her head, showing her face covered in lipstick marks, “Why d’you gotta be so mean to me, babe?”  


“Bitch, you WISH I was your ‘babe’! You’re going to bed right when we get back to school!”  


Maki frowned, “Miu, did you even have a good time there? Every time I looked over, you were on your phone.”  


“Well, that’s just ‘cause Kiibo was texting me about Kaito’s boys’ night in! It was obviously lame as shit, so he wanted to talk to me,” she clenched the edge of her short black dress, embarrassed, “I didn’t realize he would distract me so much.”  


“Hey, he knew where you were, right?” Tenko narrowed her gaze.  


“Uh, DUH! Only trash goes to a place like that and doesn’t tell her boyfriend!”  


Maki inhaled deeply, her eyes closed, “Anyways, where’s the bus stop? I could have sworn it was around here that we got off.”  


“Hey, are you girls lost?” a man stepped out of an alley, stinking of alcohol, “You can stay at my place tonight.”  


“Oh my, thank you very much-”  


Tenko blocked Angie from taking another step forward, “We’re fine, thank you. We can manage on our own.”  


“Ah, but this one doesn’t look too good,” he gestured to Kaede, her legs wobbling under her own weight.  


“And I said, we can manage on our own. Thank you,” she spoke through gritted teeth.  


“Tenko, calm down,” Maki adjusted her hold on Kaede’s waist.  


The man licked his lips and smiled, “Tenko? What a very pretty name. I bet you have a cute smile, too. How’s about one little kiss?”  


She couldn’t remember anything after that. When she woke up, her head was throbbing and she could feel motion under her butt.  


“Fucking finally,” Miu blew a strand of blonde hair out of her face, “I thought we’d have to drag you AND Funbags all the way back.”  


“What-” Tenko winced as she held the side of her head, “-happened?”  


Angie snuggled into her shoulder, “You beat up that funny man before the bus came~”  


“Oh, yeah. I should probably apologize for knocking you out. If I’d let you keep going, you would have killed him,” Maki rubbed Kaede’s back, the girl sleeping on her lap like a child.  


“That’s alright. Thank you for stopping me. I don’t think I’d ever forgive myself if I killed someone, even a nasty degenerate like him. Ugh, I have to wash all of this off.”  


“Aww, now both of our clothes are ruined.”  


Soon, the bus arrived at the girls’ stop, and they walked another two blocks to return to Hope’s Peak. On their way to their dorm rooms, they passed through Kaito’s get-together in the common room. The boys were having a pillow fight, that seemed to have quickly escalated to Kokichi dominating the game while riding on Gonta’s shoulders. Shuichi, Kaito, and Kiibo banded together with their pillows, but no impact bothered Gonta in the slightest. From the couch, Korekiyo observed their action group with interest. However, they stopped their attacks once the girls stepped into view.  


Shuichi spoke first, “Uh, Maki? Is Kaede o-”  


“Probably.”  


“Holy shit, Angie!” Kaito pointed to her charred dress.  


“Thank you~”  


Gonta turned to look back at the group, making Kokichi fall until he hung upside down behind him, “Oh no! Tenko is bleeding!”  


“It’s someone else’s,” she kept walking. The boys watched them go to their rooms--Maki going into Kaede’s room first to drop her off, then her own.  


“Hello~ I’m still stuck over here~” Kokichi sang. Kaito smacked him hard with a pillow, his eyes glued to Maki’s door.  


The boy yelped, “Ow, my face!”  


The next morning, Kokichi and Gundham were barred from entering the cafeteria until ten minutes were left for them to eat. Sonia saved a fruit crepe for her boyfriend, but Kokichi was left with granola and skim milk.  


“Mom! Can I have eggs and sausage?”  


“I can make you breakfast during lunch, but Mr. Gozu has instructed me not to accept your requests until after the first half of the school day. To be added, I ask that you stop referring to me as your mother.”  


He draped his back over the chair and swung an arm over his eyes, “Such a tragic life I live! I’m single, jobless, and now my own mother has disowned me! Perhaps if I were a better son, with a better taste in men, you wouldn’t have tossed me into the gutter!”  


Kirumi blinked, unamused, “I shall be going to class now.”  


“Wait!” Kokichi gripped her sleeve, “It was just a joke, you don’t have to leave, yet!”  


She paused, before turning back to him, “While I am under the order to reject any instructions of you, this may be… my independent decision to stay, for as long or short a time I wish. Do you understand?”  


“Nishishi, got it! So, you wanna talk while you’re here?”  


“Hmm, I suppose I may want to explain a situation in the school.”  


“Junko?”  


The girl smiled, “I should have expected you to know, with your intelligence.”  


“Yeah. I’m, like, a total genius and all,” he took a bite of his breakfast, “But what about her? Other than how she plays with another person’s life out of boredom?”  


“As you have probably figured out for yourself, I have higher connections to this school than any other student. Any other student besides Miss Enoshima, that is.”  


“Ooh, mysterious. But how’d you learn this little tidbit?”  


“Because of my talent, I am tasked with assignments designed for a secretary here, and have been previously ordered to reorganize confidential documents of every student in the Main Course.”  


Kokichi’s face was painted with excitement, “And?”  


“And Miss Enoshima’s files have gone missing.”


	9. Chapter 9

Maki and Peko had yet to show up for training, having sent a vague message to Sakura that they were together, off school grounds for the day.  


“If I didn’t already know those two were straight, I’d have guessed they were on a date,” Akane hung from a building beam, still energetic after a full session of evading physical contact.  


Sakura looked up at her, “I never asked you before, but why are you always training in the dojo?”  


“What do you mean?” Tenko tilted her head, “We all share this as our research lab.”  


“On the contrary, this place is only meant for you and I. We’ve only recently welcomed Maki to train here, just after her title as Ultimate Assassin ended. Peko spends most of her time here to spar with us, but she spends her mornings in her own lab. As for Akane…”  


“Alright, so I got a lab for my gymnastics, but it’s so BORING alone!” she swung her legs over the beam and flipped onto the ground.  


Tenko looked hurt, “You have a lab all to yourself, and you never told me?!”  


“Aw, kid, if I knew it would mean this much to ya, I would’ve shown you sooner. It’s probably real dusty right now, but if you really want-”  


“Oh my gosh let’s go right now!” the girl wrapped her arm around Akane’s and pulled her toward the front entrance, “Where is it?! Is it inside?! Ah, there’s probably a ton of cool equipment there!”  


Sakura followed the two at a leisurely pace while they sprinted through the third floor hallway of the school’s East Wing. Once there, she opened the double doors to see them laughing on a large trampoline, surrounded by Olympic-level equipment. Dust blew up from the sudden movement and choked them, forcing the pair to stop jumping and wave away the clouds of dirt.  


She sighed, “You two, I must say, are a couple of lovable idiots.”  


“Ehehe, as long as we’re lovable!” Tenko began to start bouncing again.  


“Oh, hey, I heard you went on some crazy girls’ night out last night! It got Sonia really excited to do one her own.”  


She quirked her eyebrows, “How did you guys hear about that?”  


“You know she and Angie have that weird bond. Probably because they’re both foreigners. But anyways, did I hear them correctly when Angie said Miu took you all to a strip club?”  


“Excuse me?” Sakura crossed her arms, staring disapprovingly.  


“Sorry, Sakura! If you want to be a part of this conversation, you gotta bounce with us!” Akane emphasized her point with a backflip.  


The girl sighed, and slowly passed through the net that surrounded the trampoline, standing at the edge as the floor beneath her shook.  


“Come on, Sakura!” Tenko pressed her hands together and pleaded, “Please~”  


She began bending her knees to lift her feet barely off of the surface, “Now, you were saying that my underclassmen were taken to an exotic dancers’ performance?”  


“Yeah, is that true?”  


Tenko blushed, trying to cover her red cheeks from their gaze, “Um, maybe? I didn’t do anything weird last night! There was this one lady named Cherry, who took me into a back room-”  


“Wait, WHAT?!” Sakura leapt up and dug her heels into the trampoline, ripping the material. The girls fell through the tear and landed on the filthy, hardwood floor. Tenko, unfortunately, fell on her rear, and the two loomed over her with piercing glare reminiscent of a protective--or even possessive--older sister.  


“What did this ADULT WOMAN do to a young, teenage girl like you in a BACK ROOM of a STRIP CLUB?!” Akane kneeled in front of her, her hands tightly squeezing her shoulders.  


“Nothing! I just paid her a thousand yen to talk about school and Mikan and ask for advice because everything’s fallen apart and I don’t know how to help-”  


Sakura placed a hand over the girl’s mouth, “Okay, I see the picture now. Although, asking advice from a stranger being paid to spend time with you, might not be the best idea.”  


Tenko pushed their hands away, “What else am I going to do in a place like that? Mikan’s the only girl I can focus on, no matter how much time passes that Junko keeps me away from her! Ugh, that sounds so creepy but I don’t care!  


She fell onto her back, staring up at the gaping hole of the ruined trampoline, “I still never got to say I love her.”  


Wordlessly, the others joined her, their hair fanned out in an array of brown, black, and white. They laid in silence for a short while, until Akane spoke up.  


“You will.”  


“How? Junko-”  


“Fuck Junko,” she reached over and poked her nose, “Just focus on Mikan, alright?”  


Tenko furrowed her brows, “I… I’m scared. I’m scared of getting hurt, and of something bad happening to Mikan, and…”  


“I know Junko the best out of us,” Sakura took a deep breath, “It’s inevitable that you and Mikan will get hurt. She doesn’t care about ‘winning her back’, she cares about control. Right now, while you do nothing, she has what she wants and is still bored. Tenko, believe me when I say that you do not want Junko to be bored.”  


Lifting her arm, the girls saw a cluster of scars. She pointed to a long, thin mark that wrapped around her bicep. Hesitantly, Tenko ran her fingertips along the raised scar, its discoloration sticking out from the girl’s tanned skin.  


“I had no idea she did this to you. But! You’re so strong, how was she able to-”  


“I may be stronger, but she’s admittedly much smarter. When she makes a mistake, you have to always assume it was intentional. Otherwise, she’ll trap you in your own head, walking a thin line between false security and self-doubt. And don’t ever dare challenge her in a fight, Tenko,” she eyes turned hard, “She will NOT hesitate to cheat.”  


Suddenly, the double doors opened, “Ah, there you three are.”  


Peko led Maki into the room, damp towels resting on their shoulders to hold the wetness of their hair. Maki’s hands were shoved into the pockets of her red and black-trimmed tracksuit, a striking resemblance to Peko’s own black and gray outfit.  


“Eh? You guys already showered?” Akane sat up.  


Maki glanced away from them, “We got dirty on our trip.”  


Peko and Sakura exchanged a nod.  


“Hey, Maki?” Tenko regained the girl’s attention from the floor, “I’m happy you’re here with us.”  


She offered a small smile, “Me too.”  


The group shared a moment of serenity, before Akane’s stomach growled.  
“Is dinner ready, yet?”


	10. In the Closet

Maki’s outing with Peko was one week ago, and no one had given the sudden death of Kirumi’s former client any attention. News came out that he was under investigation of fraud and money laundering, which was when Kirumi terminated their contract. He was murdered by an unknown assailant that afternoon. Since then, the three girls were seen together more often.  


On Friday, Kokichi had returned from the Reserve Course with a black eye, and a ridiculous story about fighting off ninjas with a pillowcase filled with bricks. Gonta was the only one to believe him, of course.  


There appeared to have been a falling out overnight between Junko and Mukuro, because the sisters now ignore each other. Mukuro walked away from the fight with three broken fingers and scratch marks along her neck.  


“Hey, Tenko! How’ve you been?! It feels like forever since I’ve seen you!” Ibuki drummed her forefingers against her friend’s shoulder in the hallway.  


“Huh? Oh, I’m alright! Mr. Gozu left for another trip yesterday and Kaede’s been having us do teamwork activities. I think it’s already working, since Kokichi and Kaito haven’t had a single argument since last night. Training was rough today, though. How about you?”  


The girl mimicked the motion of stroking a long beard, “It’s not boring, but not a ‘good, happy, fun’ exciting, either. I’d say… there’s just drama.”  


“‘Drama’?”  


“Yep! Hiyoko keeps acting stranger than usual around Mahiru, Fuyuhiko’s been disappearing late at night all by himself, and Mikan…”  


Tenko stopped walking, “What’s going on with Mikan? No one’s telling me what to do to help.”  


“Eh? You don’t know?”  


“No? This kind of relationship still feels so new to me. And Junko digging herself in between us like that, I don’t know how to go around her. It feels like she’s always watching me, like even just talking about her right now can get me in trouble.”  


Her friend hummed, steering her towards an open room a few steps before them, “I see, I see. So, you just need some extra guidance. Perhaps, I should rephrase, a PUSH in the right direction!”  


“Ah, hey! Ibuki?!” Tenko stumbled into the custodian’s closet, before her vision was obscured by darkness as the wooden door slammed shut, “What are you doing?!”  


“Sorry, lil’ sister, but you ran out of time!” a muffled voice called back. There was a sharp click, and fast footsteps echoed through the empty hallway, growing softer and softer until it was silent.  


“Ibuki? IBUKI!” she wriggled the knob, only to find it locked. She banged on the door, calling for help, but no one answered, and she decided against kicking the door in hopes of breaking free. Instead, Tenko felt around the small room for a light source. After weakly reaching at the air for a solid object, she felt something warm, and soft.  


“AHHH!”  


“AHHH!” Tenko stumbled backward from the sudden scream, and struck the back of her head with the door. She sunk to her knees, cradling the wound tenderly.  


A gasp came from the darkness, “Oh my gosh, I’m so-I’m so sorry! Please forgive me!”  


The girl whined, “I’m okay. I just… got startled is all.”  


“Here, I can find the light,” suddenly, Tenko’s sight was flooded with color. She looked up to see a young woman in her usual nurse scrubs, but with a few more bandages than last week.  


“Mikan, are you-”  


“Let me see your head, please. Hold still,” the woman inspected the area, combing through her dark hair, “Hmm, I don’t see a bump anywhere. That’s good.”  


She kept her hands on Tenko’s head for a while longer, until she pressed the girl’s face into her shoulder. Her fingers slid down to Tenko’s back, where she clawed desperately at her blazer, trying to get impossibly closer to her.  


“I… really missed you.”  


Tenko stiffened. She thought back to the burning training dummy with her face. She remembered Kokichi’s account of the photograph in the girls’ bathroom. If they got caught, Junko would send her to the hospital. She’d hurt Mikan worse than ever before. Then, she thought about her friends and upperclassmen. They’ve all been pushing her to follow her emotions again, in spite of the danger she could bring the person she loved most. What would Master tell her to do?  


“Fuck Junko,” she muttered under her breath.  


“Wh-What?”  


“I missed you, too,” her chest tightened, and a driblet of snot trickled down her nose. Hot, salty tears bubbled up, before spilling down to her drip off her chin.  


Mikan pulled away, a shaky smile and flushed cheeks adorning her face, “I’m so happy right now!”  


“What were you doing in a closet, though?”  


The woman looked away, “I used to be-used to be able to hide from others… in my lab. But ever since Junko made a lock on the door, I’ve-I’ve been coming here until she unlocks it.”  


“What? Mikan, that’s YOUR lab! She can’t do that to you!”  


“I’m sorry,” she scooted back and pulled her arms up to cover her face, “Please forgive-forgive me.”  


“Wait, no. I could never be mad at you. I’m just so… so angry, and frustrated, because Junko keeps messing with you. She’s abusing you and I hate that because you don’t deserve it!”  


“I don’t?”  


Tenko’s eyes stretched, and her mouth fell open. In just two weeks, Mikan had regressed further into her own insecurities and self-guilt. Fewer meals, more bruises, and no confidence. Was this what Hiyoko meant when she said it had happened before?  


“Mikan,” her voice softened, she slowly reached out and stroked her thumb over the woman’s beauty mark, “Do you remember our dates? And what I said?”  


Mikan’s gaze drifted to the wall behind her, “It’s difficult to remember things now. I’m sorry.”  


“I remember. I can remind you,” she smiled, “On our first date, I had no idea you didn’t wear make-up! You always looked so perfect to me, that I just assumed. And I told you how I love your mark, here.”  


Purple eyes met green again, “What… happened next?”  


“You said you liked me, and we kissed. It was my very first,” she moved her other hand to run her fingertips over her lip, cherishing the memory.  


“Then, our second date had a hiccup, but we got to spend a night together in your room.”  


“Ah, we-we didn’t do anything, did we?!”  


“Well, of course we did!” Tenko giggled, “We talked, and fell asleep holding hands. It was amazing.”  


Mikan blinked, a bit of life coming back into her eyes, “I remember that man. He was very-He was very nice.”  


“Yeah, he was actually worried about the girl I was seeing. But when he met you, he realized there was nothing to be,” her smile faltered, “afraid of.”  


The pair shifted to lean their backs against the door and sit hand-in-hand. Mikan’s hands still felt soft and smooth, where they weren’t wrapped in bandages. Tenko’s were clammy and rough, a stark contrast to her delicate facial features.  


“Um, Tenko?”  


“Yeah?”  


“I think I-I remember something,” her free hand fiddled with the edge of her skirt, “Back when we had returned to your room, from the ice cream parlor. You said that you wanted-you wanted to share your… true feelings?”  


She swallowed a pool of spit forming in her throat, “That’s right. I wanted… I wanted to say that I-


	11. Out of the Bag

“So, let me get this straight. You got the keys to Mikan’s awful hiding place, led Tenko to it, locked them inside, and left them there?!”  


Ibuki scratched her cheek, “Well, when you say it like THAT, it sounds crazy! Ehehehe…”  


Mahiru sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. Beside her, Sayaka smiled nervously while Mukuro stood expressionless.  


“Are they still trapped?” she asked.  


“Oh, yeah. I guess it’s been a while, huh?”  


Mukuro reached out her uninjured hand, and Ibuki dropped the clump of keys into her palm. She sifted through the stack of rusty, rigid metal pieces until her forefinger and thumb--the only fingers free from her cast--pulled up a steel key.  


“Alright, let’s get them out of there and punish Ibuki before bed,” Mahiru led them downstairs, pulling her friend by her ear as she softly yelped in pain. At the end of the hallway, however, the group heard voices inside the closet. Ibuki tiptoed forward, and closed her eyes.  


“Tenko’s telling her about their past relationship,” she whispered.  


Mahiru crouched down beside her, her own voice lowered, “How am I always flung into invasions of privacy by you people?”  


After a pause, Ibuki gasped, “She finally did it.”  


Sayaka bent over, her hands resting on her knees, “Did what?”  


“Wait, it’s quieter now. I can’t hear anything.”  


Suddenly, a faint moan slipped out from behind the door. Then another.  


Mukuro frowned, and shoved the key into it’s lock. The girls heard a gasp and shuffling before the door was swung open. Mikan cried out an apology, and scurried past her friends to the staircase. Meanwhile, Tenko sat in the closet, fiddling with the buttons of her blazer. Red-faced, she looked up in a panic.  


“Ah, it’s not-it’s not what it looks like! I swear, we didn’t plan to-”  


Ibuki wailed, “My baby sister is growing up so fast!”  


“You locked them in a closet,” Mahiru scolded, her hands on her hips, “What did you expect was going to happen?”  


Tenko hopped to her feet, brushing off her skirt, “Well, now that I’m out, I guess I’ll head to my room, good night!”  


She bolted around the corner, and out of sight, slammed into something. A few seconds later, Hiyoko stepped into view, dragging her back to the girls.  


“Geez, Ibuki! I thought you said you… could… handle this?” she looked from Mukuro, to Sayaka, to Mahiru. Her grip on Tenko’s arms loosened, but the girl didn’t try to move away. Mahiru’s hands fell and sagged to her sides, a hint of sadness etched over her face.  


“Hiyoko, what is all this? I thought we were going to let them move at their own pace.”  


Still in the woman’s grasp, Tenko looked up at her, “Wait, you knew Mikan would be in there? I thought it was just a prank that went wrong.”  


“Hush,” Hiyoko turned her attention back to her friend, “We gave them plenty of time to do something, and they were going nowhere. Mikan’s looked like shit for weeks, and THIS one just sits around for Junko to magically disappear out of her life! They can’t do this by themselves!”  


Sayaka placed a finger under her lip, “It’s true that they’ve never experienced a healthy romantic relationship before. Maybe… we should engage more, and show them what it looks like?”  


“No.”  


Everyone looked to Mukuro, “This will only make things worse for them.”  


“What do you mean?”  


She pointed at Tenko, “Junko’s labelled you. That means you’re on her radar. And if you’re on her radar, your best bet is to do everything she wants, or stay away from her.”  


Mahiru hugged herself, “Her… radar? What does that mean? Is it like, she targets someone to harass?”  


The girl tucked a strand of short hair behind her ear, “Junko doesn’t make specific people targets for harassment, per say, because she can simply do it to anyone regardless of their relationship with her. Instead, her targets are made with a goal in mind. Mikan and Tenko are labelled, as well as Ryota Mitarai from the Main Course registry, Hajime Hinata from the Reserve Course, Nagito Komaeda of Class 77-B, and Kirumi Toujou of Class 79-B. There may be more, but you all are who I can be certain in mentioning.”  


“Hmm, I still don’t get why it’s being called ‘labelled’, though,” Ibuki scrunched up her face, “Does she at least call them something?”  


Tenko hung her head low, “Yeah. I’m… she calls me a…”  


“She calls you a baby, Mikan her bitch, and Nagito ‘the loveless’. I know that much,” Hiyoko released her hold on the girl, “What I don’t get is why you take it so hard. It’s not like being called a baby is the worst thing in the world. You’ve been called a dumbass to your face, but this bothers you more?”  


She felt her chest tighten again, but painfully. Torturously. As if a thorny vine had wrapped around her heart, and squeezed it until it burst. Her mind wandered back to the fights, in dark alleys with disgusting men reeking of beer and cigarettes. She had never had a high tolerance for pain, and when she couldn’t hold back her tears, their taunts were heard past throbbing bruises or stinging cuts and scrapes. A bitch is what they called her when she was winning a fight, but a baby is what she was when losing. Vulnerable. Weak. Helpless.  


“Tenko, come on,” Ibuki pulled her up off the floor, “I’m going to get you some ice cream as an ‘I’m super duper sorry for locking you in a closet with your ex’ special occasion. Do you like strawberry flavor?”  


“...Mhm.”  


“Okay, let’s get some ice cream and cover it in chocolate syrup. Teruteru and the others should be gone by now, so it’s totally fine!”  


Sayaka tugged Mukuro to follow them toward the kitchen, “Wait for us!”  


Hiyoko turned back to leave in the other direction.  


“Hiyoko.”  


Mahiru stepped forward, “I know this whole scheme was about more than getting those two back together, and that you want Mikan to be available again as your outlet.”  


“Oh, yeah? Then what else could it be, Mahiru? Why did I try to push Tenko into finally making a move that would stop Junko from terrorizing one of your friends?”  


“Because you’re Tenko.”  


Hiyoko flinched as shock permeated her face. Once she recovered, she looked out of a nearby window, at a dinky little streetlight that blocked the beautiful sunset above.  


“And who do you think is Junko?”


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW for explicit domestic abuse/bullying

It was the next morning that authorities arrived to interview Makoto Naegi for the disappearance of his little sister. When he returned from the police station, Sayaka took him out to a lunch date.  


“I hope Komaru’s alright,” Aoi sighed, “Makoto seems really close to her.”  


Byakuya dabbed his mouth with a napkin, “I’m sure the police will find her and return her home safely.”  


“Yes. She was only taken Tuesday, so there is still a chance of survival for her,” Celestia took a sip of her royal milk tea.  


“I don’t know if that was supposed to be reassuring, but no one should mention that sort of thing in front of Makoto!”  


Junko kicked her feet up, “Geez, calm down, Mr. Hall Monitor. Also, to be more accurate, the rate of survival after three hours of abduction are roughly twenty-six percent.”  


Kiyotaka slammed his hands on the table, “Now that could in no way be comforting to our classmate! And put your feet down!”  


“Ugh, it’s not like my boots are dirty! Lay off me, will ya? It’s only Thursday and I’m already booked with stupid, boring photo shoots in my schedule for this weekend! Being a model is sooo hard. God, I hate contracts.”  


“Um, Junko?” Mikan shifted beside her, chewing her bottom lip.  


“What’s up? And quit it with the lip, you always draw blood and it’s disgusting~” she pulled out her cell phone.  


“Well, since you’ll-since you’ll be busy over the weekend, could I maybe have the-have the key to my lab?”  


The girl threw her head back and laughed, “Oh, honey, you keep forgetting that I don’t give permission, so you shouldn’t even ask! How about this? Today, you can take out anything you want for the weekend, and keep it in your room. That’s so nice of me, isn’t it?”  


“Yes. Thank-Thank you.”  


“Say, Junko,” Kyoko spoke up across from them, “I’m curious why you decided to restore your relationship with Mikan, just after she and Tenko-”  


“Excuse me! I don’t recognize that name, could you jog my memory?”  


“The one you call a ‘little baby’, I believe,” Byakuya adjusted his glasses.  


“Which you shouldn’t do, by the way,” Aoi pointed at her, “It’s mean, and not even true!”  


Toko chewed on a fingernail, “Ha! Sh-She’s too loud and hyper! More like a toddler to me!”  


“Thanks, Braidy, I knew I could count on you to take my side!”  


The girl flinched away, disgusted, “As if!”  


“Junko, you haven’t responded to me yet,” Kyoko intertwined her fingers, her elbows resting on the table.  


She smirked, “If I answer, will you show me what’s under your cute gloves? Oh wait, nevermind. I just ate.”  


“Okay, that comment was way too far, Junko! Apologize this instant!”  


“It’s fine, Kiyotaka.”  


“It is most certainly NOT fine!” he stood from his seat, “Bullying should never be acceptable!”  


“Well, it seems like you’ve all accepted quite a bit last year. What’s the difference now?” Junko slid her hand through Mikan’s choppy hair, her red nail polish disappearing as she lightly scratched at the woman’s scalp. The sensation sent shivers down her spine, but there was a wedge of terror in her mind, anticipating the eventual yank that always comes.  


“Wow, look at that face~”  


She regained her focus to see everyone looking at her with eyes of pity, or shame, or frustration. What did she look like just then? Kyoko, however, remained stoic, as her eyes flickered back to Junko.  


“We all know that the efforts made were null due to unknown circumstances. I should also note that while an inactive witness holds guilt, the perpetrator is undoubtedly the most responsible. If not for your actions, there would be no situation in the first place.”  


Junko waved her empty glass, “Oh, Maid-lady, I need a refill~”  


From the center of the cafeteria, Mikan could see the 79th Class talking and laughing as Kirumi walked over with a pitcher of water. The two made eye contact, and the woman felt safer somehow. As though she had received a silent promise with just a glance. Cautiously, she peered over Kyoko’s head and saw more of her first-year underclassmen. The bubbly girl sat atop their table with a sketchbook, studying a large man in front of her. He looked nervous, trying to fix his long, messy hair with no luck. Angie. Gonta. A boy in a black cap was speaking, downcast, with two classmates. The girl rolled her eyes as the other boy tried to cheer him up, his right arm sticking out of its coat sleeve. Shuichi. Maki. Kaito. At the very end of the table, a blonde girl waved her hand in front of her friend’s face, the other girl staring straight at Mikan. Kaede. Tenko.  


“So you finally noticed, hm?” Junko whispered into her ear, amused, “The brat’s been ogling you since she came in. Someone ought to teach her some manners.”  


She tried to turn her head to look at the girl, but her hair was clenched tightly into a fist. She muffled a yelp, looking around the table to see if anyone was watching her.  


“Please. Please don’t.”  


“Eh? Don’t what? Tell me what you don’t want me to do to the baby.”  


When she didn’t answer, her hair was pulled harder, “Ple-Please don’t… hurt her.”  


Junko leaned in closer and nipped at the side of her jaw, “Oh, but that’s a lot to ask of me. You keep forgetting how our relationship works, after just a few flings with some snot-nosed little kid. You do not ask anything of me, because you aren’t my equal. You’re. My. Bitch. Got it?”  


“I’ll do-I’ll do anything.”  


The girl giggled, “You do anything for me regardless. Nothing you say can persuade me, because you have nothing left to bargain with. I own every part of you. Your time. Your body. Your psyche. It’s all mine~”  


When she looked back to Tenko, she saw Kaede and Rantaro pressing their hands on her shoulders and murmuring to her. They locked eyes, and she watched all of the rage fade from her face. What replaced it, she saw, was determination. Her mouth moved, to which Kaede and Rantaro drew back.  


“Hey, Sakura,” Aoi nudged her friend, “Do you have plans after training tomorrow?”  


“Not particularly. Why do you ask?”  


“Maybe we can go have a girls’ night like the others did a while back. I forget where they went, though.”  


Sakura pursed her lips, remembering the interrogation of that night.  


“Hm, me neither. It seems we’ll have to choose a place ourselves.”  


“Ah! I can ask Angie!” the girl stood up.  


“No, no, that’s not necessary. We shouldn’t bother her when she’s so concentrated on her sketch,” she blocked her with an arm.  


“Oh, okay. Would you like to join us, Kyoko? You’re not busy with detective work this weekend, right?”  


“I am able to make time, if I know where you intend to take me.”  


“How about…” Aoi gasped, “karaoke! We can invite Sayaka, if she’s free from Makoto then.”  


A classmate pulled on her jacket sleeve, “If Sayaka will be there, I would like to go as well.”  


Celestia quirked an eyebrow, “I didn’t take you for a singer, Mukuro. I must say you’ve surprised me.”  


“Are you interested, too?”  


“I appreciate the invitation, but I’m afraid I will have to decline. Friday night is… a special occasion for me.”  


“Hey! You invited Celestia and Kyoko before ME?! So mean!” Junko whined.  


Sakura frowned in annoyance, “Didn’t you just say you were busy all weekend?”  


“Well, yeah, but I still like being asked!”  


Aoi looked at the table, “Um, would you want to go out with us to karaoke tomorrow night?”  


She twirled a strand of her wavy blonde pigtails, “Oh gosh. You know, I totally would, but I’m SUPER booked at that time. Sorry~”  


“Hmph, and I bet you never thought of asking me,” Toko glared from across the table, “I’d j-just be an embarrassment if you were associated with me in public.”  


“Oh! I just assumed you weren’t interested. I’m sorry, Toko. You can come with us if you want!”  


She cringed, “No way, I hate karaoke! Taking original works of music and pretending to sing it professionally. S-Such a disgrace!”  


“Huh? Then why were you… Nevermind.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to give Toko a different speech impediment from Mikan's stutter, so she has difficulty making "sh", "j", "ch", and "s" sounds.


	13. Chapter 13

It had been three times she tried to call her master, but still no answer.  


“Is something wrong? One of them always picks up the phone,” Tenko muttered. She snapped her cell phone shut and placed it on her nightstand, the light of her lamp shining off the little shuriken charm clipped to its antennae.  


“Who do I tell about this? Junko hurt her right in the open, and no one did a thing. It’s like… they gave up trying to help,” she picked up her stuffed dog and looked deep in its black, button eyes, “What do you think, Midori? Junko’s too smart for me to trick her, and too vicious to actually fight her, even without Mukuro on her side. She probably has grenades in her boots, or something.”  


Tenko lied on her back in bed, hugging the toy close to her chest. Tentatively, she brought a finger up and traced over her lips, the memory of last night’s kiss fresh in her mind. She thought about Mikan until, eventually, she fell asleep.  


“Ugh, what the fuck is going on?” Miu threw her door open. The incessant beeping that lured her out was louder in the hallway, and she saw the other girls banging on the door beside hers.  


Kaede grabbed her by the shoulders, “Miu! Do you have anything to get in Tenko’s room?”  


“What-OH!” she saw thick, dark smoke seeping through a crack in the bottom of the door. She ran back into her room and fished around one of her crates of prototypes for anything useful. After a few seconds of searching, Miu heard a thunderous crack, before a long, low hiss of a fire extinguisher made her scramble back outside.  


“Oh my God, Tenko!” Kaede knelt in front of the girl, who was dragged into the hall by Maki. She must have kicked the door down and showered the flames as soon as she saw them, because Tenko herself was covered in foam, coughing hard.  


“Jesus Christ, did you have to spray her down?!” Miu dropped to her knees and wiped at Tenko’s face, “You coulda blinded her!”  


“I’m sorry, I didn’t see her on the floor,” Maki played with a lock of her hair.  


“I’ll go find Mikan!” Tsumugi rushed toward the exit. Angie returned from her room with a towel to clean off the nitrogen dry powder. Kaede lifted Tenko’s head onto her lap. Just then, the boys ran over to them.  


“Hey, what happened?” Kaito skidded to a stop next to Maki.  


“There was a fire in Tenko’s room. She got injured by broken glass on the floor.”  


Shuichi put a hand to his chin, “It was likely from the culprit throwing the fire’s source at the window, and breaking it.”  


“‘The culprit’?” Kokichi rested his hands behind his head, “Just say Junko, we already know it was her. Tenko’s picture was on fire three weeks ago, and know this?”  


“But why now? I just don’t understand what drove her to do this after she got what she wanted.”  


“I…” Tenko coughed.  


“What? Did something happen?” Angie tilted her body closer.  


“I kissed… Mi-Mikan.”  


“Oh, what the fuck, Big Dyke?! You sulk in a strip club but fool around with a bitch who’s girlfriend hates you?”  


Kiibo gasped, “Miu, don’t say tho-”  


Tenko grabbed the girl by her plastic barbed wire choker, pulling her down until she was an inch from her face, “Don’t… ever call… her a bitch.”  


Miu whimpered, “A-Ah, that look is so hot.”  


“That’s nasty,” Himiko rubbed her nose, “But Tenko, you said you kissed Mikan again? When?”  


“Do I really have to share this with everyone?” she slowly sat up.  


Kokichi grinned, “It was in a closet, wasn’t it?”  


“What? How did you-”  


“We’re here!” Tsumugi panted out as she leaned against a wall. Beside her, Mikan covered her mouth in horror and hurried to the girl’s side.  


“I’m so-I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!” she pulled out a cloth and wiped away the frothy residue around her neck and face. Her fingers grazed the irritated skin that was exposed to the chemicals.  


“I’m okay,” Tenko smiled, her voice weak and raspy.  


Rantaro crossed his arms, “You are absolutely not okay. You nearly died. And you still have glass in your feet.”  


“What? Oh no,” Mikan tore her hand away from Tenko’s jaw and crawled to the doorway, “Um, please give us some space, everyone. I will have to-will have to work here.”  


Everyone returned to their own rooms, except for Mikan, Tenko, and Kaede. The woman reached up to turn on Tenko’s room light, and inspected her patient’s injuries. Small, jagged pieces of glass glittered in the luminosity, and thin trickles of blood coated her pale skin.  


“Kaede, you don’t have to stay with us,” Tenko twisted her head to look at her friend.  


The girl ran a hand through her blonde tresses, “Someone should be with you two after all this. In case Junko’s around to do anything else.”  


“Ah, she went out a little while ago, for the rest of the week,” Mikan dabbed the girl’s right foot with another cloth, doused in rubbing alcohol. Tenko hissed in pain, falling backwards into Kaede’s arms as she jerked her foot out of the nurse’s grasp.  


“I’m sorry! Please-Please forgive me!”  


“It’s okay, I just didn’t expect it,” she straightened her legs again, “I’ll try to stay still.”  


After her feet were cleaned and dressed in bandages, she surged forward and captured Mikan’s lips with her own. Her eyes closed as she felt two arms rest over her shoulders, and she slowly brought her hands to Mikan’s waist. When they pulled away, Tenko giggled.  


“I don’t even feel any pain anymore! You’re the best nurse in the whole world!”  


The woman blushed, “Um, thank you, Tenko, but I’m sure there are-there are plenty of better nurses out there.”  


“Nuh-uh, you’re the very best. And I won’t let you say otherwise. You’re forbidden!” she pulled her into a tighter hug.  


Mikan yelped, “Oh! Kaede, I’m sorry, I forgot you were here!”  


“That’s alright. It was really cute,” Kaede stood up, “But, Tenko, you should change your clothes before going back to bed. Do you need any help?”  


“I-I can help her. If she needs it…”  


Gonta was nice enough to carry Tenko to Mikan’s dorm room, as the fire and extinguisher had damaged a portion of her own. After a warm bath--spent entirely with the woman staring at her lap while Tenko washed herself--Mikan had given her a cotton nightgown to change into, and the smell of tongue pressers and cough medicine filled her nose. It wasn’t a flowery perfume, or fruit-scented shampoo, but it was Mikan. With Junko gone that night, they were free to sleep in each other’s arms, Tenko’s stuffed dog huddled between them.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact: This was originally supposed to be the 15th chapter, but the first 14th didn't really add anything to the story, so I got rid of it. Just Kirumi talking to Mikan about whether or not she can handle taking care of Tenko all on her own without the proper treatment locked in her lab. Pretty boring, looking back on it XD

“Okay, guys! Tenko and Kokichi are both absent, but that means we still have an even number of people. So, let’s get into different pairs, and we’ll start a scavenger hunt!”  


The class drifted toward each other until Himiko was left in the center of the room, yawning and rubbing her eyes.  


“Nyeh, I thought you said we’d have an even number…”  


Kaede carefully scanned the room, “It looks like Kirumi’s not here, either. Uh, that’s okay. You can join a pair to make a group of three.”  


“Please pardon my tardiness. I had just finished cleaning the mess in Tenko’s room, and delivering a few of her belongings,” Kirumi gracefully walked through the door.  


“Perfect timing! You’ll be with Himiko for the scavenger hunt. No area of the school is off-limits, so we can go to the upperclassmens’ research labs and dorms. Chiaki and Makoto cancelled classes today, though, so you might run into them.”  


“Do we have to go there?”  


“Come on, Pooichi!” Miu elbowed her partner in the ribs, “Don’t be a pussy! We’ll just go in, grab our shit, and get outta there!”  


Nearby, Kiibo hugged himself nervously, “Please be careful, Miu.”  


Soon, Himiko and Kirumi were left inside the classroom as their friends began searching for items on their lists. Himiko read through her own, before looking up at her partner.  


“I need a sack and Tenko’s stuffed dog thingy,” she held up the list and pointed.  


“‘A cherished possession’? I would say that fits quite well. She is in Miss Tsumiki’s room right now.”  


On their way to Class 77-B’s dormitories, the girls collected a jar of sugar, a ladybug brooch, and a hand mirror. Kirumi carried the bag over her shoulder while Himiko trudged beside her, holding her hand for guidance as she let her eyes close for seconds at a time.  


“Sooo, we got ‘something sweet’, ‘a gift of nature’, and ‘the beauty of oneself’...”  


Meanwhile, Kaito and Kaede were knocking on Kokichi’s bedroom door. They were looking to borrow his checkered handkerchief, as it was black and white. He finally opened the door, but a pair of puffy red eyes and glistening tear tracks urged Kaito to lead his partner elsewhere.  


“Oh, hello again, Kirumi. Good-Good morning, Himiko.”  


“Himiko?” a voice drawled from behind the woman. She stepped aside to show Tenko stretching her arms from Mikan’s bed.  


“Hey, Tenko. Can we borrow your dog for a minute? Kaede’s making us do a scavenger hunt,” Himiko showed the list.  


“Yeah, sure! Just, um, don’t put Mikkun with everything else. I don’t want him getting hurt or dirty,” she handed her toy to the girl.  


“Thanks. How are you doing, by the way?”  


On the other side of the building, Fuyuhiko swung his door open, “WHAT?!”  


“AH! We’re sorry!” Kiibo bowed in a panic, “We’re doing a scavenger hunt and need to find ‘a powerful connection’? Can we have your signature?”  


“My signature? What, like a fucking autograph or somethin’?”  


Ryoma crossed his arms, “Just proof that we know you. We tried looking for Sonia, but couldn’t find her.”  


The man scowled, then sighed irritably, “Christ. Fine, gimme a piece of paper.”  


“Miu, I don’t like this,” Shuichi looked around as his partner shimmied the chain off of Mondo’s motorcycle, “What if he comes in?”  


“Why the hell do you think you’re a lookout? If we get caught, he at least knows you were involved and I have time to escape!”  


“This just seems very literal!”  


Miu groaned, “How else do we get ‘a powerful connection’?! Okay, I got it! Let’s go!”  


Inside Sayaka’s room, Makoto hugged his girlfriend and tried not to cry.  


“Honey, it’s okay to let these feelings out. You’re going through a very stressful time right now!”  


“But... Komaru’s fine…” he sniffled, “and I’m gonna see her… really, really soon. So… I can’t let her see me like this. Even though… it’s been three days.”  


Sayaka rubbed his back, “Kyoko’s working on the details in her lab. Do you want to go see her?”  


He let out a shuddering breath and shook his head.  


“I’m kind of worried about Master,” Tenko stared at her lap, “No one at the temple picked up last night, or this morning. It’s not normal! Maybe… I should call again.”  


“Tenko, you’ve called them four times already this morning,” Mikan sat on the edge of her bed.  


“But I won’t be able to tomorrow or Sunday!”  


Kirumi lowered her gaze, “I am sure they are safe.”  


Junko threw her coffee at an assistant, “That. Was not. DECAF!”  


“So sorry, ma’am.”  


“Get me more rose petals while you’re out, too!”  


“Yes, ma’am. Right away, ma’am.”  


She smoothed out the silk open robe over her lacy, black and red lingerie, and checked her phone.  


“Oh, hi, you two!” Chihiro greeted the pair at his door, “What brings you here?”  


“We were hoping to take a picture of Alter Ego for this scavenger hunt, as ‘a cherished possession’,” Rantaro held up his phone, “Would that be okay?”  


“Of course! Please, come in.”  


Angie twirled inside, “Oh my, look at all of these boxes of technology! Computers and speakers and monitors and… more computers~”  


Korekiyo paled behind his mask, “Yes, I believe this species is qualified as ‘a gift of nature’, Gonta.”  


“But what about Monarch?”  


“This is but the first thing on our list. It will suffice, I assure you.”  


The girl broke away from Makoto’s embrace when she heard her phone chime on her nightstand. She entered her password--the date of her favorite holiday--and read Aoi’s message.  


“Aoi asked me to go with her and some of the girls to karaoke tonight,” she told him. He sat up and looked at her.  


“Are you going to go?”  


“Wait up… Maki,” Tsumugi’s knees nearly buckled under her weight after she was finally allowed a break from running. Her partner walked into the 77th Class’ common room, where she saw Sonia and Gundham reading a book of supernatural beings. Wordlessly, she snapped a photo with her phone, and left.  


“‘Something sweet’. Now, let’s keep moving.”  


Tsumugi whined as she jogged after her.  


A while after Kaito and Kaede left, Kokichi heard knocking once more. He staggered to his door and pressed an ear to the wood, hoping Kaito came back for him.  


“Kokichi? It’s Nagito,” a muffled voice spoke.


	15. Anything for Love

Saturday morning was peaceful, despite the unnerving absence of several students. Nagito had apparently spent the previous night in Kokichi’s room, and neither have come out yet. Mikan was still caring for Tenko in her room, and Kyoko locked herself in her research lab.  


“Does it still hurt?” Makoto’s brows knitted in concern. Sayaka nodded, rubbing at her sore throat from the girls’ outing at karaoke. Her boyfriend suddenly smiled, and snatched her cup from the table.  


“What if,” he scooped out a spoonful of pink, creamy yogurt, and held it out to her, “I nurse you back to health?”  


She let out a weak giggle and closed her mouth around the spoon, before placing a quick peck on his lips. Across from the couple, Byakuya scoffed and returned to his book.  


“Master Byakuya, maybe we can-”  


“Absolutely not.”  


“Hey, now, let’s not get carried away with the PDA,” Kiyotaka held his arms in an ‘X’ shape. Beside him, Mondo leaned close and pressed a searing kiss on his jaw, drawing out a yelp as his cheeks burned red. Unbeknownst to the class, someone was watching with gears turning in their head.  


“Tenko, I’m back from the cafeteria,” Mikan opened her door, a bowl of oatmeal in her hand, “Kirumi told me that you… like…”  


The bed was empty.  


“Ten-Tenko? Tenko?!”  


From the bathroom, a muffled voice yelled, “I’m here, hang on!”  


The woman heard a faint hiss of rushing water, and a bout of silence until the door squeaked open. Her patient slowly limped back to the bed, a wince etched on her face.  


“Ah! Why are you walking? It’s only-It’s only been two days!”  


She sat down with a sigh of relief, “Actually, I think I’m healing pretty quickly! It’s probably because I have the best nurse in the world helping me, ahaha!”  


Mikan placed the food on her desk and sat beside her, “Tenko, please don’t interfere with your healing process. I… I know you must be feeling bad about having-having to rely on someone like me-”  


“What? No! It’s not that at all! I just, um, have a bit of cabin fever, you know? It feels like forever since I got out of bed on my own, or walked without assistance,” she hung her head, “I like being independent, is all.”  


“I see. I’m sorry.”  


Tenko looked back at her, “Why do you apologize to me so much? You haven’t done anything wrong.”  


“But you’re hurt because-because you’ve-because you’ve associated with me. Junko, she… I asked her not to, but…”  


“Junko doesn’t seem like the kind of person to listen to how others feel. I hate thinking negatively about girls, but she’s something else,” she pulled her nurse’s arm into a hug, “But I know you’re still a good person, Mikan. I mean, you let me stay in your room and take care of me, even though I’ve been a pretty troublesome patient.”  


“Well, there is a way to make it up to me. Only if you want, though!”  


“Okay! What is it?” she beamed.  


“Um, er, you have to lie down first,” Mikan let the girl swing her legs onto the bed, “And, would you mind being… tucked in?”  


“What’s ‘tucked in’ mean?”  


“It’s like this,” she wedged a part of the comforter in between Tenko’s body and the mattress, trapping her patient’s arms at her sides, “Some people feel safe this way. Is it okay?”  


Tenko shifted under the covers, “It feels… familiar for some reason. Like, something my mother did when I was little.”  


“Now, can I do something else?” feeling braver, Mikan recollected the breakfast she brought, “You can still say ‘no’.”  


She glanced down at the oatmeal, fresh blueberries sitting atop their gooey home, “You want to feed me?”  


“Ah, um, yes.”  


“You don’t want to do this because of what Junko says, right?”  


“No, it’s not because-not because of that! I just saw Makoto do it for Sayaka, and-um, as your nurse...”  


The girl looked away, her cheeks flushed, “Well, if it’ll make you happy, then it’s not really that big of a deal or anything.”  


“Are you sure?”  


Embarrassed, Tenko nodded, “But, you can’t tell anyone!”  


The woman’s mouth stretched into a gleeful smile, and she blew on a lump of oatmeal before presenting it to her patient. The warmth carried down her throat into her belly once she swallowed, and a sugary aftertaste was left on her tongue. After a few minutes, her eyelids grew heavy, until she couldn’t keep them open any longer. Eventually, numbness enveloped her fingers and toes.  


“Here comes another~” a sweet voice sang, the metal spoon pressed gently against her bottom lip, asking for entry once more.  


She checked Tenko’s heartbeat. Slow. The girl was asleep already. Mikan put the bowl down on her desk and walked around the bed to lie beside her patient. She was worried that her beloved would refuse to be spoon-fed, opting to feed herself and not eat enough of the medicine before she grew suspicious. But it was for her own good. Tenko was her patient, and she was the nurse. She knew what was best.  


“I love you so much, darling,” she stroked her cheek, “I never want you to get hurt again.”  


The next few hours were a blissful date of brushing Tenko’s hair, applying lotion to her irritated skin, and changing her bandages. Mikan flinched at the sound of fierce knocking, scrambling to her feet and peeking through the sliver of space she cracked open.  


“Oh, hey, Mikan! I was wondering if Tenko-”  


“She’s asleep and can’t have visitors,” she shut the door before Kaede could say anything else.  


Back in the 79th class dormitories, Kaede reentered the common room.  


“So?” Rantaro looked up at her from his spot on the floor, “How’d it go?”  


“Mikan told me she was asleep,” the girl sighed.  


Kaito crossed his arms, “Do you not believe her?”  


“I don’t know. It just kind of seems out of place for Tenko to sleep right now, doesn’t it?”  


From the couch, Tsumugi smiled nervously, “She’s been through a lot lately. Maybe she’s just on some drowsy painkillers.”  


“...Maybe.”  


“It will be a-okay, Kae-de~” Angie clapped, “Let us play, now! Atua wishes for me to be the teeny tiny race car~”  


“What?! I wanted to be the car!”  


“Kaito, let her have the race car. You can have second pick.”  


“Fine,” he pouted, looking over the small metal game pieces, before picking up one that resembled a terrier dog.  


Rantaro smiled, “You know, it seems like our class is split into children and parents.”  


“How so?” Tsumugi ran her finger along the border of their game board.  


“We have really mature classmates like Maki, Ryoma, Kirumi… taking care of others like Kokichi or Himiko. But, I guess that’s just what happens when you’re a teenager. Either stuck on the young side, or thrust into adulthood.”  


“Speaking of Kokichi,” Kaede shuffled a pack of cards, “is he okay? He was crying yesterday, I think something happened to him. Or maybe a person he was close to?”  


Kaito scratched the back of his head, “Yeah, about that…”  


“You know you’ll have to come back out, soon,” Nagito swung his leg that rested over the other, watching from Kokichi’s bed as the boy continued scribbling on a large whiteboard.  


“Pfft, you say that like anyone’s missing me right now,” he jammed the cap back onto his marker and took a step back from his work, “Junko’s returning from her supposed photo shoot and I need to set up a plan of defense before I go out and rescue our damsel in distress!”  


His friend flopped back on the mattress, “Ahh, to be young and full of hope again.”  


“You care about him, too.”


	16. Chapter 16

“Mikan?” Mahiru knocked, “Come on out. I found the key to your lab taped to your door. I don’t exactly trust it, so I thought we could go together and get a wheel-”  


Suddenly, the door was thrown open, and the woman pulled inside. A hand clamped over her mouth as she was pinned to a wall.  


Mikan’s eyes bore into her own, wild and unfocused, “Shhh.”  


Slowly, the nurse turned her head away to look at her patient, sleeping peacefully with a half-empty glass of milk on the nightstand. Her mouth twitched until a shaky smile formed, and her attention snapped back to Mahiru.  


“I am the nurse. I know what’s best for her. She should not have a wheelchair.”  


Her friend struggled out of her grasp, “Her feet are going to take at least another week to heal, and you want her to be confined in a bed the whole time? What about class, or fresh air? What about seeing her friends?”  


“She doesn’t need them,” Mikan giggled, “She has me to keep her company.”  


“Mikan. Don’t do this again.”  


“It’s different from before,” she hissed, “Tenko truly loves me.”  


Mahiru crossed her arms with a glare, “Well, if you truly love her back, you’d give her some freedom. If Junko finds her in a state of helplessness-”  


“Junko’s not going to find her,” the woman walked back to the bed, gently petting Tenko’s head, “I told her that she died in the fire.”  


“You… what?!” her shout caused Mikan to glower at her.  


“Who would tell Junko where she is, after almost murdering her?” she spoke calmly, which made the question all the more unsettling to hear.  


“We still have another semester of school before we graduate, and they’re both going back NEXT YEAR.”  


“Oh, Tenko won’t be coming back,” Mikan smiled sweetly, “After I graduate, she’ll drop out and live with me. And then, we’ll get married, and have three children, and be together forever.”  


With a wince, Mahiru took a step back, “Please, Mikan, I want you to think about this logically. Tenko has her own aspirations for the future, and she can’t just drop all of it because of you.”  


“It’s not me. It’s-It’s Junko. She started this, but Tenko saved me. She’s my soulmate, and I’m going to repay her with all of my being,” she rocked back and forth in her seat on the bed, “My time. My body. My psyche… they all belong to Tenko now.”  


The woman sighed and rushed out of the door, leaving the two lovers behind in their beautiful castle. She walked over to Hiyoko’s room, then Ibuki’s.  


“What? What?! WHAT?!” Ibuki frantically shakes her head, pulling at her hair, “Again?! And with MY little sister?!”  


Hiyoko lowered her face into her palm and groaned, “For the last time, you two are NOT related.”  


She then turned to Mahiru and cracked her knuckles, “Just give me five minutes with her, I’ll set her straight.”  


“No. Violence will only push her further into her codependence and see us as an enemy. What we need is to get to Tenko, and have HER speak her mind.”  


“Oh? Does that mean she was lying to me, then?” a voice called out. The women froze, looking towards the hallway as a clacking of heels echoed in their ears.  


Junko brushed a blonde pigtail over her shoulder and laughed, “Oh my God you should’ve seen your faces just now! You all actually thought I believed the baby DIED! Please, if I wanted her dead, she’d have been in taxidermied as my ottoman by now. But yeah, sounds like there’s a real big problem with my bitch again, huh?”  


“What the hell are you doing here?” Hiyoko tried to put on a brave face, but her trembling hands betrayed her, “You better not go in my room again after that time you cut up all my clothes!”  


“Well, I’m a fashion icon! I was just doing you a favor~” her blue eyes glinted with mischief. Or cruelty? They flickered down to Mahiru’s hand.  


“Ah, so you found my anniversary gift,” she sighed with a smirk, “She whines when she doesn’t have it and then when I finally give it to her, she refuses. Must be too busy with the baby to think of anything else.”  


Ibuki pouted, “Don’t call my lil’ sis a baby! Call her what she really is--a lesbian gentleman. Gentle lesbian? Gentle-...sbian.”  


“Ibuki, let’s focus on that later,” Mahiru turned her attention to Junko, “None of us trust you and I’m certain you somehow planned this reaction from Mikan anyway. Just leave them alone, for once, and we’ll clean up your mess AGAIN.”  


Junko purred, “What a feisty girl~ I wonder what you’re like in bed. Oh, but I’m not the only here, am I? Sorry, Hiyoko, I keep forgetting.”  


“Sh-... Sh-Shut…”  


“How about this? None of you tell my bitch that I know she lied, and I’ll stay away from BOTH her and her new toy. M’kay?”  


While Hiyoko stared at her feet in shame, the others exchanged a nod.  


“Awesome!” she turned her back towards them and gave a wink, “See you later~”  


“Bitch,” Hiyoko muttered under her breath, once Junko was out of sight. She spun on her heel and stalked away, back to her room.  


“Good morning, girls,” Nagito walked up to them, heaving a lumpy garbage bag over his shoulder.  


“Hi, hun!” Ibuki waved.  


Mahiru narrowed her eyes, “What’s in there?”  


“Oh, just some things Kokichi lent me. Bicycle helmet, knee pads, bubble wrap, etcetera, etcetera.”  


Ibuki tilted her body to the side, “Wow, he must really want you to be safe around campus!”  


“Hahaha! Yeah, I’m just going back to my room for now, though. I’ll see you both later,” he flashed them a toothy grin before trudging to the boys’ side of the dormitories. When he finally entered his room and closed the door, he sighed in relief. The man dragged the bag over to his bed and opened it, laying the contents onto the floor: a gas mask, several canisters of tear gas, a bullet-proof vest, and a crowbar.


	17. Chapter 17

The next day, at lunch, Makoto and Kaede spoke with Chiaki in the hall.  


“Ooh, and the plot thickens for our young heroes as the glamorous supervillain prepares her next attack,” Junko said as she wrote in a small notepad.  


Sayaka frowned, “What are you doing?”  


“Just narrating, she told the deadly siren, as her perfume overwhelmed all who drew too close.”  


The girl scowled, and went back to eating. Sitting across from them, Kyoko laced her fingers together and closed her eyes in deep thought. It was peacefully quiet for a moment, before she heard a soft whisper.  


“As usual, the stoic detective falls asleep during lunch, longing to become thin and beautiful like her rival. Tragically, her hopes are dashed once she realizes that her bust could never reach the goddess-like level of muah.”  


Kiyotaka stood up, waving his hands in discomfort, “Okay, let’s not discuss our fellow classmates’ physical attributes. Kyoko is lovely, no matter what, as are all of the other girls here, and competition of looks is detrimental to self-esteem!”  


“Says the second gayest boy in school, next to ‘The Loveless’,” Junko smiled as she scribbled on the paper, “Speaking of gay, the fairest queen of Japan remembers how her wet blanket of a girlfriend called her, to regale the fateful death of a poor infantile student in Hope’s Peak Academy. Rest in peace, whatever your name is.”  


Aoi nearly choked on her water, “Wait, what?”  


“Yes, there was a fire in one of the dorms Friday night,” Byakuya pushed up his glasses, “And I highly doubt you’ve forgotten her name.”  


Yasuhiro scratched his chin, looking towards the ceiling in utter confusion, “Eh? But Tenko’s-”  


“In a better place, now,” Sakura glanced at Junko, stone-faced.  


The man looked between them, then snapped a pair of finger guns, “Yeah, yeah! That’s right.”  


Junko then held up her full plate, “MAID-LADY!”  


“Yes, Miss Enoshima?” Kirumi bowed, “How may I be of assistance?”  


“I don’t want this. How about a salad instead?”  


“Understood,” the girl took the plate and was about to walk away before Junko grabbed her wrist.  


“Oh, but it would be a waste to throw out perfectly good food. Why don’t you have it?”  


“If you wish,” she carried the burger back to the kitchen, and within a few minutes, brought back a bowl of salad as she dabbed her lips with a napkin.  


“Damn,” Junko pulled her cell phone out from under the table, “two minutes and sixteen seconds to eat a double cheeseburger. That’s faster than Mukuro!”  


She flipped to an earlier page in her notebook, “Looks like we have a new record~”  


“At least I still own the high score for males,” Hifumi puffed out his chest.  


Beside him, Leon quirked an eyebrow, “Is that really much of an accomplishment?”  


“LET ME HAVE THIS!”  


From Class 79-B’s table, Kokichi played with a deck of cards, shuffling them before wiggling his fingers and dramatically pulling out a queen of clubs.  


He presented it to Kaito, “Is THIS your card?”  


“Yeah, actually,” he blinked in surprise, “How’d you know?”  


“Nishishishi! Oh, dear, sweet Kaito-”  


“Watch it.”  


“-I am a master of all trades. One might even say that I have the uncanny ability to possess talent itself!”  


Himiko hummed boredly from his right, “Mhm, definitely not because your deck is just all queens of clubs.”  


The boy shot her a look of feigned betrayal.  


“Magicians show their deck before the volunteer picks a card. You didn’t,” she shrugged.  


“Well, I… figured you weren’t awake enough to notice.”  


Shuichi laughed, “I actually saw the trick, there, but didn’t want to give you away.”  


“Aww~ Thanks, Shuichi-” he leaned closer to Himiko, “-for being such a great friend!”  


“What? But you tricked me. Isn’t that sort of being a bad friend?”  


“Himiko’s still a good friend when she throws us magic shows. I was merely granting you the illusion that I, myself, was magical. And really, isn’t that the greatest gift one could give a friend?”  


On Himiko’s other side, Angie shot her hand up, “Atua says the greatest gift is actually an organ transplant!”  


“...Okay, technically, yes. But, like, AFTER a life-saving medical procedure.”  


Kaito sighed, combing his hand through his hair as the dried spray left it stiff to his touch, “I guess I ought to say ‘thank you’ then, for the… magical journey, you took me on?”  


“FINALLY, some appreciation for the things I do around here!” Kokichi stuffed the cards into their box and chugged his glass of grape soda.  


“Ah, Himiko, would you like to go visit Tenko after class today?” Angie asked.  


“Nyeh, alright. Hopefully she’ll be awake by now.”  


Shuichi furrowed his brows, “What do you mean?”  


Angie turned to him, “We tried yesterday after supper, but Mikan told us she was sleeping.”  


“Wait, seriously? Kaede said she was asleep before lunch Saturday, too!”  


“You don’t think she’s in a coma, do you?”  


Kokichi inspected his fingernails, “Come on, Shuichi, you’re an Ultimate Detective. You had to have heard it, too, right?”  


“Sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Heard what?”  


Of Mikan telling Junko Tenko was dead. That opened the door to two possibilities. Either she’s actually dead, and Mikan is hiding it from all of them by claiming she’s ‘sleeping’. Or she lied to Junko and is hiding Tenko from HER. He looked over at the girl, who winked at him. Her sinister grin made him want to vomit.  


Instead, he simply smiled and put a finger to his lips, “Oh, you didn’t? Then that means you’re in the dark of a dirty little secret~”  


“Kokichi-”  


“Hupupupup! I’ll give you three hints. Behind the green glass doors, there is a sleeper, but not a dreamer.”  


Kaito grit his teeth, “Is this a real riddle, or just gibberish?”  


“Behind the green glass doors, there is a killer, but not a lover.”  


Himiko paled, “What?”  


“Behind the green glass doors, there is an illness, but not a fire,” he put his hands to his head before pushing them away, making an explosion sound with his mouth. Shuichi put a hand over his mouth in thought. A sleeper, a killer, and an illness? No dreamer, lover, or fire? But, there WAS a fire. And a lover, too. Unless, Kokichi wasn’t referring to Tenko and Mikan.  


“Are you saying that Junko is responsible for this? She made the fire, and that caused Tenko to go to Mikan’s room in the first place,” he adjusted his cap, “But, then, what do you mean by ‘illness’?”  


“Hey, I just said that I would give you three hints. This game isn’t going to devolve into twenty questions,” the boy stood from his seat and strutted away. Once he was certain that he was alone in the hallway, Kokichi’s shoulders slumped and his gaze fell to the floor.  


A red sheet of light engulfed Tenko’s vision behind her eyelids, and she scrunched her face, squinting her eyes open before they were pierced by the bright rays of sunshine through her window. She moved her head, unfamiliar with her surroundings, until she remembered that Mikan had been caring for her in her own bedroom. How long had she been asleep? What day was it? The sudden knocking struck her with a sense of urgency, as she kicked off the comforter and crawled to the edge of the bed. She limped over to the door, and threw it open.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just in case, TW

“Girls?” she leaned against the doorframe, wincing at the pain in her feet, “What are you doing here?”  


Angie laughed, “What kind of question is that, silly? We wanted to see you and play!”  


“Huh? Really?” she brightened.  


Himiko nodded, “We can go to my lab and feed the birds, or-AH!”  


The girls were shoved aside and Tenko pushed back into the room while Mikan slammed the door shut, locking it with a menacing ‘click’. She turned to her patient on the floor, her eyes desperate and fearful.  


“Please, you shouldn’t answer the door when I am not present.”  


“Mikan, I… I was just talking to my friends. I haven’t seen them in a while, so-”  


“You aren’t in a position to argue with your nurse,” the woman knelt in front of her, her face suddenly hard, “Not until you are fully healed.”  


“But, can’t they at least come see me? I could-I could stay in bed the whole time!”  


Mikan stroked her cheek, “Dear, I don’t want you getting hurt. Anyone else is a threat to your safety when they don’t have proper medical knowledge. And in the state you currently are, you are far too weak to be around those people.”  


“‘Weak’?” she whispered, her heart aching, “No. No, I’m strong enough. I swear.”  


“I know what’s best for you, darling. I will run you a bath and feed you dinner.”  


“Wait, dinner? But I just woke up,” Tenko looked around for a clock. Above the door was a nail, with nothing hanging from it.  


“Your body must be using a lot of energy to heal,” the nurse smiled, and took a step toward her. She scooted back.  


“No, I’ve been injured worse than this. This is... It’s something else,” too soon did she feel the cold plaster wall press against her back. The woman kept walking toward her. Her heart thumped loudly in her ears, but not like it had when Mikan first kissed her. This was fear. The figure stepped closer, and closer. It wanted something from her. Master wasn’t here to protect her. No one could protect her. The man reached forward to grab her-  


“Get-GET AWAY FROM ME!” she curled into a ball, covering her head with her arms. A cold pair of hands gripped her wrists, trying to pull her to her feet. Tenko smacked them away and dove in between the figure’s legs, crawling desperately to escape her captor. The bathroom door was ajar, and she tumbled inside before slamming it shut. With shaky fingers, she turned the lock and leaned against the wood, gasping for air in her panic.  


Mikan jiggled the doorknob, “Tenko, sweetie, let me in. I know you like doing things on your own, but I’m here to take care of you. Please, open the door.”  


She was met with no response.  


“Tenko,” she threw her body at the door, “open the door!”  


The girl slapped her hands over her ears and squeezed her eyes shut. Beyond muffled shouts, she could vaguely hear loud banging from the other side of the door. Suddenly, the shouting doubled, and tripled, before vanishing completely. In the midst of calm silence, came a soft knocking near her head.  


“Tenko?” the gentle voice called, “It’s Kaede. Are you okay?”  


“Kae-Kae-Kaede?” she panted out, her breath unsteady and shallow.  


“Mhm, that’s right. Angie and Himiko are here, too, if you want to see them. They really missed you.”  


She pushed herself onto her knees and slowly wrapped her fingers around the doorknob, “I… miss them.”  


“Nyeh, Tenko,” another voice spoke, “We can still play together, if you come out.”  


As her heart pounded in her chest, she unlocked the door and cracked it open, peeking through to see bright purple eyes looking back at her. Kaede was kneeling in front of the bathroom, holding out Tenko’s stuffed dog. She stared longingly at the toy, opening the door wider, inch by inch, until she could poke her head out.  


“Hi, Tenko,” Kaede whispered, moving the dog’s front leg to make it wave, “I found Mikkun for you. We can take him to your room and play, okay?”  


Tenko’s eyes nervously scanned the room, “Where’s the man?”  


“‘The man’?” Angie tilted her head, “There was no man when we got here. Maybe he ran away!”  


She reached out her hand, “Hurry, hide in here!”  


Kaede dropped Mikkun onto her lap, her brows knitted in concern, “Tenko, I promise there’s no danger here. You’re safe now.”  


“You… you really promise?” she peered behind the door, expecting her attacker to be hiding in wait until he could strike again.  


“Yes, I promise.”  


Gazing into Kaede’s eyes, and glancing up at Himiko and Angie, she finally came out of the bathroom. The girl offered the stuffed dog, to which Tenko graciously accepted into a hug.  


“There we go,” Kaede smiled, “We have another surprise, too.”  


She pointed to the hallway, and Tenko craned her neck to see around the corner. Past the unhinged door laying flat on the floor, was a polished wheelchair with a dark blue seat and black handle grips.


	19. A Worse Rescue

“Oh, geez,” Kokichi huffed, resting his hands on his knees, “I’m really out of shape.”  


Leaning against the wall beside him, Nagito laughed, “That makes two of us. But at least we lost them.”  


“Yeah, for now,” he straightened his back and looked around the barren corridor, “In any case, we shouldn’t stay in one place very long. We got caught, and I bet they have an alarm set to go off any second now.”  


Nagito ran a hand through his unruly white curls, “I should... apologize for messing up your plan. My luck nearly got us killed just now. You probably would’ve been better off on your own down here than with me.”  


Kokichi snickered, “Where’s the fun in that? Come on, Hajime has to be on this floor. I say we stick together, since splitting up never works in any of the movies I’ve seen. Like, seriously, if you were in a house with an axe murderer, would you want to be separated from your friends?”  


The man followed his friend down the hallway, “Only to sacrifice myself to save everyone else, but other than that, no. Strength in numbers, and all that.”  


“See? You’re one of the only sensible people in this school, how could I not invite you?”  


“Ah, then may I say that this is a lovely reception,” he said, voice dripping with sarcasm.  


“Mm, yes, indubitably so,” the boy rubbed his thumb and forefinger over a pretend mustache, “If only they had valet parking.”  


The pair walked briskly past a fire escape staircase, before red lights blared overhead and a low horn rang in their ears. They broke into a run again, the gas masks bouncing from around their necks, and slid through a large steel barrier at the end of the hall before it reached the floor and trapped them. The alarm immediately fell silent, leaving them able to hear their own heartbeats race rapidly inside their chests.  


“Uhh, that one!” Nagito pointed to a door out of several, seemingly at random, and Kokichi frantically picked the lock. Once inside, a motion detector turned on the room light, illuminating the mysterious figure perched atop a cot. The person--likely male from a sturdy build in his three-piece suit--raised his head to look at his intruders. Behind the long mass of dark hair that reached past his back were a pair of deep, red eyes, reminiscent to Kokichi of Maki, and he suppressed a wince before his mouth stretched into a wide smile.  


“Hi there!” he waved, “We’re looking for a very good friend of ours. Have you seen a guy about this tall, spiky brown hair, loves orange juice?”  


Nagito chuckled nervously, “He doesn’t need to know that last part to have seen Hajime.”  


“But what if he was walking by with a glass of orange juice?” Kokichi whispered loudly, barely lowering his voice.  


He turned back to the figure, “Oh my gosh, WHERE are my manners?! I’m Kokichi Ouma, Ultimate Supreme Leader, lovely to meet you, and this is Nagito Komaeda, Ultimate Lucky Bastard!”  


“Ahaha, Lucky Student.”  


“But, who are you? Any name?”  


Their host blinked, “Izuru… Kamukura.”  


“Ah, I see,” the boy crossed his arms with a nod, “I could only imagine what kind of talent you have, to share the name of our school’s founder! Oh, sorry about that. Your uniform…”  


“Uniform…?”  


“Yeah, now that I take a closer look,” Nagito crooked a finger under his lip, “it looks like the Reserve Course uniform. Our friend wears one, too, since he unfortunately doesn’t have any talent.”  


The figure closed his eyes, “How boring.”  


In a flash, he was gone. Kokichi flinched, turning to run out of the room before a swift knee to his stomach sent him flying across the room. His shoulder crashed into the cement wall with a sickening crack, and the bulky bullet-proof vest under his shirt gave protection to his back as he collapsed onto the floor. Behind him, he heard Nagito suffer a similar fate, and the two groaned in pain as calm footsteps echoed down the corridor. Kokichi rolled over on his side and found his friend propped up against the wall to his left.  


“Nagi-” he coughed, “Where’s…?”  


Holding his swollen jaw, the man shook his head. On top of his uniform, his reaction to the Reserve Course proved that their attacker was the monster Junko hinted at.  


“The embodiment of talent,” Kokichi lifted himself to his knees, clutching his right arm, “is a subject of human experimentation. My friend’s a fucking guinea pig.”  


Nagito stood and walked over, “We have to go.”  


After crawling through a maze of an air vent, they entered the hallway on the other side of the steel barrier, and hurried back to the fire escape staircase. Pulling their gas masks back over their faces, Nagito dropped a canister of tear gas over the railing, and ran down the stairs. Kokichi followed, keeping a tight grip on his arm as he nearly stumbled out of the exit.  


“Come on, let’s go to the nurse’s office,” Nagito held the boy’s body up, “It hasn’t been locked since Sunday morning, and I know a little about treating wounds.”  


They passed by a garbage bin through the school’s park, and disposed of their masks and tear gas. The sun had already set long before the pair had even infiltrated the building, but the risk of being caught with these was too serious, especially now that ‘Izuru Kamukura’ had escaped.  


“Hey, Nagito?”  


“Yeah?”  


Kokichi let more weight lean against his friend, “Thanks again, for coming with me. If I saw him like that on my own, I…”  


The man hung his head, “Well, you were right, you know?”  


“About what?”  


“I do care about him,” his voice quivered, “I care about him more than anyone in my life. But it’s just… it’s just my luck, huh? Ahaha.”  


“Hey, Nagito.”  


He turned to look down at Kokichi, blinking away the tears that fell straight to the ground.  


“You’re not beyond love. Just remember that.”  


“You have to tug it upwards when it’s at the bottom.”  


Himiko hummed as she let the bright green yo-yo drop from her hand, then with a grunt pulled it roughly into the air, over her head, and hit herself in the back.  


“That was, uh, better than last time,” Kaede quirked her mouth into a smile as she set down another card into the ring besides Tenko’s bed. Upon Angie’s turn, she flipped over a red six of spades-  


“AHA!” Tenko smacked her hand down with a cheeky grin. She looked up to the girls when they didn’t do the same, and inspected the card.  


“Eh? Wait,” she picked it up to see Kaede’s red eight of hearts underneath, “Aw man, they look so similar!”  


Angie clucked her tongue and waggled her finger, “Now, now, Tenko. Rules are rules.”  


“Yeah, I know,” she grumbled as she swept up the small stack of cards into her hands, but smiled when she spotted Himiko catch the yo-yo into her palm.  


“I… I did it?” she blinked, before jumping into the air with a cheer, “I DID IT!”  


“Way to go, Himiko!”  


The girl’s celebration was interrupted when she flopped face down onto the mattress, deflating from exhaustion.  


“Ah, I guess that’s our cue to leave,” Kaede rose to her feet, collecting Himiko into her arms and turning back to Tenko, “Do you want me to come back and stay overnight?”  


“No, I’ll be okay. Um, but if I need you later…?”  


She smiled sweetly, “I’ll be in my room all night, and you’re welcome to come by.”  


“Thank you.”  


“Of course! Good night, Tenko,” she called as she walked out the door.  


Angie followed, waving back to her friend, “Yes, yes, nighty-night!”  


“Good night,” she waved. Once they left, she let out a sigh and started to clean up the mess of cards all over her floor. After she put the deck and yo-yo back into her drawer, she pushed herself to her feet and limped to her bed. She snatched her flip phone from the nightstand and dialed the number of Shofuku temple, biting her lip as the soft ringing made her fingers tap restlessly against her thigh. Reluctantly, Tenko ended the call and snapped her phone shut. She carefully walked back to her desk, pulling out a pen and a sheet of paper, and began to write.


	20. Chapter 20

“Tenko?” Kaede knocked, “Tenko, it’s almost time for class. We’re going to have another session about some things that’ve been happening, and you have to be there.”  


She waited for a response, “Tenko? Are you okay?”  


Still nothing.  


“Tenko, you need to make a sound for me, I’m-I’m getting nervous.”  


Walking up to the door, Maki sent it flying with a single, swift kick. The wood splintered to pieces, until only a few chunks hung from the strong hinges. She walked to the newly replaced window near Tenko’s bed. It was locked shut.  


Kaede sighed, “Thanks, but we’ll talk later about your habit of breaking doors.”  


“Just Tenko’s, specifically,” the girl headed for the bathroom to investigate, “And maybe Kaito’s.”  


“Wait, look at this,” Kaede called out. Maki turned back to see her reading a piece of loose-leaf paper torn from a notebook.  


Kaede’s hands flew to her mouth, “Oh my God.”  


The two rushed back to the classroom, finding all but one of their classmates present. Rantaro looked up from Kokichi, leaning against his desk.  


“Hey, girls,” he waved, “Is she alright?”  


Kaede huffed out of breath from the run, while Maki stepped forward, “She went to Fukuoka.”  


From her seat, Himiko paled, “Wait, what? But, she’s in a wheelchair.”  


“Are you suggesting abduction?” Korekiyo’s eyes flitted to the girl.  


“I didn’t see any wheelchair in her room, so it’s possible that she went on her own accord. If I had to guess, she went to Shofuku temple.”  


Kaito rose from his chair, “Alright, then let’s go!”  


“No,” she turned and walked back to the door, “There’s someone I already have in mind who can handle this.”  


“And then, this jackass has the gall to say that I look like a fucking PRESCHOOLER!” Fuyuhiko barked, holding a red-stained handkerchief to his nose.  


“I mean, he wasn’t wrong,” Kazuichi muttered.  


“What’d you just say?!”  


“Peko,” Maki stood in the doorway, “I need Akane. Right now.”  


The woman nodded and turned to her friend, “I have to go, Fuyuhiko.”  


“Alright, but come back soon. I don’t know how long I can stand these assholes on my own,” he tipped his chair back.  


Hiyoko’s response fell on deaf ears as Maki led Peko into the hallway. Their search began in the 77th Class’ dormitories, where they found Mikan’s door still in pieces, untouched. Nearby, Akane answered the knocking on her own room, half-asleep.  


“Oh, yeah, she’s with me right now,” opening the door wider, the pair can see Mikan sitting at the edge of the bed, rocking back and forth listlessly.  


“She’s been like that since yesterday, after I forced her out of her room. Don’t think she slept all night, either.”  


Peko blinked, “Is she sick?”  


“Can’t feel a fever,” she shrugged, “But she keeps saying Tenko’s name, and apologizing.”  


“So she was with you the whole night, and this morning,” Maki narrowed her eyes, thinking as she placed a finger to her mouth.  


“Yeah, why? What’s up?”  


Back in the classroom, Kaede took a deep breath, “Kokichi, please talk to us.”  


“Uh, I’ve literally been talking this whole time?” he rolled his eyes, “If you mean ‘tell us the truth, pwease’, then that’s a WHOLE ‘nother ballpark.”  


“Gonta is worried about Kokichi,” Gonta pointed to the boy’s sling, “Got hurt last night. Why?”  


“So, I was out fighting those ninjas that came back, and-”  


“Kokichi,” from Kaede’s other side on the floor, Shuichi’s eyes bore into his, “You’re wasting everyone’s time by lying like this.”  


His mouth closed, and eased into a tight, straight line, his face blank. He used his good arm to push himself to his feet, and walked to the door, turning his head to look back at the class.  


“Then stop trying to use your precious time on a liar,” he stepped outside and shut the door.  


Kaito jumped up, “I’ll go talk to him.”  


“The twink’s got a point though,” Miu picked under her fingernails, “He’s still lying, even after all this talk of caring about him. I say we move on.”  


Beside her, Kiibo lay a hand on her shoulder, causing the girl to flinch, “But he’s lying for a reason, too. He probably doesn’t trust us, and if we give up on him, then it will just prove his suspicions right.”  


Suddenly, the door slid open, and Maki scanned the room with a sharp glare.  


“Why were Kokichi and Kaito running down the hall just now?”  


Angie pointed over to the boy, “Shuichi was super mean to Kokichi!”  


“I-I didn’t mean to!” he stammered.  


With an irritated sigh, Maki rejoined the group and sat beside Kirumi, “You’ll have to solve your issue with him later, then. Right now, let’s continue the activity.”  


“Oh, um, okay,” Kaede turned her attention to Kiibo, “I remember you two were at the last group therapy session a few weeks ago. How is everything going?”  


“Well, I am learning more about Miu,” he explained, “and my own levels of intimacy.”  


“How so?” Tsumugi quirked an eyebrow. He smiled and wrapped his arms around Miu’s waist, laying a cool, metal cheek against her shoulder. With a blush, the girl brought her hand up to his face and turned her head to press a rough kiss on the side of his nose. A few of the girls mewled in delight before Miu whipped her head back to them, gripping Kiibo’s head close to her neck.  


“YEAH, LOOK AT THIS SHIT! WE ARE SO FUCKING ADORABLE!” her other hand stroked his rigid white hair. He laughed and squeezed her in a tighter hug.  


Akane stepped off the bus that brought her to the closest train station. She slipped between business suits and bumped against leather purses, ignoring the dirty looks and mutters behind her back.  


“Okay, which one goes to Fukuoka?” she peered over a crowd of heads, squinting at the large map hanging over a wooden bench. Red, blue, and green lines crossed over each other and spread apart in a web of color across the gray background. Her concentration was broken, however, when she heard shouting from a circle of people.  


Akane pushed two teenage girls out of her way to see Tenko straddling a middle-aged man’s lap, punching him in the jaw as he weakly pushed at her chest to stop the assault. Another high school girl sat within the circle, wiping tears from her eyes and holding the top of her button-up shirt closed. Next to her, a bulky wheelchair lay on its side.  


“Hey, hey!” she marched over and slid her hands under Tenko’s arms, prying her off the man until she released his necktie and his head dropped to the cement floor. His face was swollen and blood poured from his crooked nose, his open mouth showing gaps where his teeth were knocked out. The girl writhed in her grasp, thrashing her limbs to escape while she dragged her out of the crowd and threw her to her hands and knees. Tenko whipped her head back, seething with rage, before blinking in shock.  


“Akane!” she twisted her body to face the woman, shame filling her expression as her gaze fell.  


“Yeah, it’s me. I got the memo that you took off to catch a train alone in the middle of the night, and now, after chasing you down, I see that you’re gettin’ into street fights?! What do you think that Master of yours would say if-” she stopped when Tenko lifted her head, a vacant stare in her dull, green eyes. Her flushed cheeks were dirtied with tear tracks.  


“No one was there.”


	21. Another Strain in Love

Makoto combed his fingers through his soft, brown locks while Kyoko sifted through the photographs he had found in a yellow envelope under his bedroom door. The pit in his stomach flipped when she set them back on her desk, and folded her hands in front of her mouth.  


“These don’t appear to be faked,” she spoke calmly, “but now we know that she’s still out there.”  


A sob escaped his lips as he clenched his eyes shut, “Please, Kyoko, I’ll do anything--ANYTHING--to help this investigation. Just tell me what you need and I’ll do it.”  


“What I need from you is patience, and faith that I can find her. I understand how much she means to you, but you have to trust me. Don’t do anything rash.”  


The boy sniffled, “Okay. I… I trust you.”  


“Thank you,” she pushed her chair back and took the photos to a cork wall in her research lab, before plucking out a thumb tack and poking it through the first picture. She studied the position of Komaru’s body keeled over on a carpeted floor. Her face was obstructed by her dark hair, but the second photograph showed that her eyes were closed, likely asleep. Kyoko couldn’t find any marks on the girl’s skin, despite the skirt of her school uniform riding up her legs and short-sleeved shirt revealing her bare stomach.  


“And, Kyoko,” Makoto wiped his nose with the back of his hand, “thank you again, for doing this.”  


“It’s my job.”  


“But you volunteered to take this case,” he smiled, “It’s just… nicer to know that a friend is looking for her, over a stranger.”  


She turned her gaze back to him, a hint of a smile growing on her own face, “I think I might stay here during lunch.”  


“Sayaka and I can drop by!”  


“No, thank you. I have to focus on the details of these images, and look into possible areas that have this interior. My first thought is that it’s an apartment.”  


He walked to the door of her lab, “Then, at least let me deliver your food, okay?”  


“Mh,” she grunted, eyes glued to the wall.  


Makoto stepped out of the room, and a figure appeared from behind the door as he shut it.  


“Ah!” he yelped, “Sayaka! You startled me!”  


“I’m sorry, I was just really curious about what you two were talking about,” she wrapped his arm into a hug and led him to the cafeteria.  


“Oh, just more on the investigation,” his face fell, “It’s been a week, and still no leads. I can’t stop worrying.”  


She tilted her head to rest atop his shoulder, “I’m sure everything will work out. You’re the Ultimate Lucky Student, right?”  


“Yeah. I hope it can work on her, too.”  


When they walked through the double doors of the cafeteria, Makoto could see Mikan sitting beside Junko, her head hanging forward limply while the girl’s long fingernails dug into her shoulder. The couple sat at the far end of the table, across from Mukuro.  


“Are you still having trouble with chopsticks?” Sayaka asked her, watching as the girl tried to flex her fingers inside the cast.  


“Oh, yeah,” she murmured, “I guess I should stick to a fork for a while longer.”  


“Where are Aoi and Sakura?” Makoto craned his neck to search for them at the 77th Class’ table. He noticed several others were also missing.  


“They went out with Akane to have lunch off-campus.”  


Junko grinned, “Yeah, they all seem really close to do that, don’t they?”  


He nodded tensely, and filled a second plate with food before standing up again, “I told Kyoko that I’d deliver lunch to her. Be right back.”  


Once he left, Junko snorted, “Off to get some real action, huh?”  


“What?” Sayaka glared.  


“Oh, please,” Toko hissed beside the empty seat, “Makoto is s-so obviously a player. He probably j-just wants to build a name for himself by dating girls with any kind of REAL talent. What could he do as an Ultimate Lucky Student, anyway? S-Sticking by a popular s-stage monkey like you is all that’s keeping him from living in a cardboard box-”  


As the girl ranted, Junko shook pepper into the palm of her hand, before blowing it at her face. Toko shrieked and tried to wave the cloud away, but she sneezed, falling backwards out of her chair. When she arose, her tongue lolled out of her mouth like a large wet snake, and her eyes warped from gray to bright red.  


“Hey, Syo,” Junko wriggled her fingers in a wave, “Glad to have you back. Toko was being sooo annoying!”  


“Seriously?! God, I keep trying to tell that girl to let loose, but it’s like she doesn’t want to listen to me!”  


Sayaka looked back at her food and started eating. Toko was difficult to tolerate when she had the confidence to direct her bitter feelings towards others, but Genocider Syo was even harder to ignore.  


“So, where was the conversation headed?” Syo wrapped her lips around the straw of her drink and loudly slurped.  


Junko pulled out her phone and checked her mascara, “Makoto flirting with Kyoko in her lab.”  


“Oh, yeah, that’s totally happening,” she laughed.  


“No, it’s not. Stop making stuff up!”  


“Oh?” she glanced up from her phone, “Then why isn’t he back yet?”  


Having heard enough, Sayaka dropped her chopsticks on her plate and left the table. Without thinking, she let her legs carry her to Kyoko’s research lab. Makoto wasn’t like any of her exes. He never asked her to send dirty pictures, or invite her friends to have threesomes. The past few months with him had been the happiest in years. Yet, her heart sank every time he’d gone to Kyoko. Of course, she reassured herself daily that he sought after the girl for information on the investigation, but Sayaka was well-aware of her friend’s beauty. Intelligent, mysterious, and mature--Kyoko Kirigiri was a woman with more substance in her pinky toe than she had in her whole body. She knocked on the door, biting the inside of her cheek, and listened for them. Finally, Makoto opened the door.  


“Huh? Sayaka, is everything alright?” his brows furrowed, and she wondered what face she was making.  


She forced a smile, “I just wanted to join you two. Can I come in?”


	22. Chapter 22

“But, why?” Tenko stared at her half-eaten burger, “Why would she lie like that?”  


The restaurant buzzed with voices, and the rattle of ice cubes in Aoi’s soda as she stirred kept her focus away from her fellow patrons. Past her shorts, bare skin stuck to the leather seat of her wheelchair, and her rear ached from hours of sitting. She clenched her jaw to suppress a yawn, trying not to think about how exhausted she felt.  


Sakura placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, “Mikan is… irrational, when she falls in love. Sometimes, people end up hurting those they care about most, and don’t realize what they’re doing until it’s too late.”  


The girl looked up at her, “Like Master?”  


“You could draw a connection to him, yes. But you have to remember that right now, the ball is in your court. You are to decide whether or not she should be forgiven, and whatever decision you make, I assure you that we will be by your side.”  


Beside her, Akane paused her voracious eating to give a thumbs up as muffled sounds of chewing continued.  


“I was-I was so SURE that I was back in those alleys,” she hid her face in her hands, “And then, she tried to break into the bathroom. She… scared me.”  


“Honey, if you don’t feel safe around her, we can arrange something,” Aoi leaned forward in an attempt to meet her eyes. Tenko shook her head.  


“No, I want to talk to her. And I know that I need to confront Junko again.”  


“You don’t have to give her the time of day,” Akane spoke after swallowing, “She’s just a crazy bitch who likes to bully others.”  


“But, Mikan must’ve gone back to her,” she curled her fingers so her nails dug into her hairline above her forehead, “And she still doesn’t deserve to be treated so horribly.”  


The girls exchanged glances before Sakura slipped out of the booth, “Okay, I think it’s about time we head back to school. ”  


“Yes, thank you,” Kyoko ended the call and turned to her friends, “I think I may have found a lead. I’m going to have Mr. Kizakura drive me over to an apartment complex near the city. Would you like to come with me?”  


Makoto stood so fast that he nearly tipped his chair over, “Yes, please. I have to, if she’s there.”  


“Let me go, too,” Sayaka pleaded.  


Kyoko nodded, and pulled a small notepad from a drawer in her desk. She then led the couple out of her research lab, down the staircase, towards the front entrance of the school. Waiting for them was a sleek red sports car with a black stripe across its sides. Makoto and Sayaka stood in awe and were about to walk toward it, before a girl from Class 78-A ran past and jumped into the passenger’s seat. After the car sped off and the dust settled, they saw Mr. Kizakura sticking his head out of a rusty Honda, with a dented bumper and cracked headlight.  


“Hey~” he tipped his white fedora up with his thumb, “You invited some friends, Kyoko? The more the merrier!”  


The drive was fast, reckless, and terrifying. Sayaka’s back seat window jammed half-way through rolling it down, but there was enough air to calm her car sickness. Beside her, Makoto squeezed her hand in his.  


“Um, Mr. Kizakura-”  


He laughed, “Please, call me Koichi!”  


“Koichi,” Sayaka wiped a trail of drool from the corner of her mouth, “Can you… Can you please slow down? All this jerking is making me feel really si-”  


The man slammed on his brakes with a screech, and if not for her boyfriend pulling her in close, she would have smacked her face into the back of the headrest.  


“Don’t worry, kids, we’re already here!”  


Back at Hope's Peak, Mikan tensed at the creak from her research lab’s door, before turning to see-  


“Oh, um, hello,” she greeted, her eyes glued to the floor.  


By the doorway of the nurse’s office, Tenko rubbed the back of her neck, “Hi.”  


Behind the girl’s wheelchair, her arms crossed tightly over her ample chest, Akane cringed.  


“Hey, you look familiar!” a voice called out from the back of the room. A young man with neat blue hair, and an ice pack covering his left eye, pointed to Tenko. He looked somewhat familiar. Wearing a Main Course uniform, he was likely from one of the ‘A’ classes. The school’s main building and dormitories were divided in a way that half of the student body rarely interacted with the other.  


“You flipped me a couple weeks ago, when you caught me kissing my girlfriend in the West wing.”  


The girl flinched, “Oh! Ah, yeah, I-I remember that… sorry, by the way.”  


He smiled fondly, “Ahaha, no worries! It was sort of nice to see that Tsubasa has someone looking out for her.”  


“Excuse me, sorry!” suddenly, a blonde woman squeezed past her wheelchair and rushed over to the man, sliding into an empty space beside him on the cot. She carefully pulled the ice pack away from his face, revealing a dark splotch of purple around his eye and cheek bone.  


“Oh my gosh, darling, I am SO sorry!” she fretted, “I’ll never play softball ever again! Can you forgive me?”  


“Of course, sweetheart, it was just an accident. Besides, it doesn’t even hurt!”  


Relief washed over her features, and she threw her arms around his shoulders, “I love you so much, Taro!”  


“I love you, too, Tsubasa,” his smile grew wider, before he winced in pain.  


Akane’s eyes flickered to Mikan, her mouth a thin, straight line. She could see a deep red blush coating her classmate’s cheeks as she fidgeted with the pen in her hand. Tenko wasn’t faring well to the sight, either.  


“So, um, Tenko,” the woman timidly peered behind her choppy bangs, “May I be of-May I be of any assistance to-to-to you?”  


“I…” she swallowed a pool of spit forming in her mouth, and forced a shaky smile, “I just need some painkillers.”  


“Alright, since Kokichi hasn’t come back yet,” Kaede sighed as she leaned against the podium in front of the classroom, “we should keep going with the session. Would anyone like to go next?”  


From the end of the second row, Rantaro raised his hand, “I can share.”  


He twisted his body to sit sideways in his chair, raking a hand through his messy green hair, “So, I’ve been working on being more honest with all of you, and talking about big events in my life. Well… a while back, I found one of my sisters on my trip to South Korea.”  


“What?”  


“Seriously? How’d it go?”  


His carefree smile trembled, “She died eight months ago.”  


Shock and confusion flashed over Miu’s face, “Jesus Christ.”  


Angie clasped her hands together in a silent prayer.  


“I almost… didn’t tell any of you, in case I made you worry,” he turned over one of his rings around his finger while Kiibo rested a comforting hand on his arm, “And… I still need to tell my parents.”  


“I hope you don’t plan on doing it alone,” Ryoma spoke up from across the room, “Just say the word, and I’ll be there.”  


“Ryoma, you don’t have-”  


“It’s alright,” he pushed his hat up, “They still deserve to know this as soon as possible, don’t they? Besides, I have nothing going on all day.”  


Rantaro blinked stray tears down his cheeks, and hung his head, “Thank you. Really.”  


Wiping at his face with the edge of his sleeve, he turned his attention to Kaede, “I’m good. We can focus on someone else now. Please.”  


“Ah, Gonta has an announcement!” the boy rose from his seat, careful to slide his large build out from in between the desk and chair.  


Kaede threw up her eyebrows, “Oh, what is it, Gonta?”  


“Headmaster let Gonta make a school club, for gentlemen!” he held up a printed form, “But, Gonta needs at least four members to…”  


Kirumi tilted to the side to peek at the form, “‘Officiate’.”  


“Oh, thank you. To officiate the club!”  


“Aw, dude, that’s awesome!” Kaito pumped his fist, “Is it like a guy’s group?”  


He beamed excitedly, “No, girls are welcome, too, so anyone can be gentlemen!”  


“Usually, girl gentlemen are called ladies,” Himiko pointed out, her head cradled in her arms on her desktop.  


“Oh,” Gonta’s expression deflated, “Then, can Gonta change the name to ‘Gentlemen’s and Ladies’ Club’?”  


Tsumugi offered a bright smile, “Of course you can. And I’d love to join!”  


“Really?” his eyes shone with hope.  


“Yeah!”  


Beside him, Angie jumped up, “I wanna join, too~”  


“I would be honored if I may attend your meetings to appreciate the passion you hold in your aspiration to become a true gentleman. I find it quite admirable,” Korekiyo said, his voice calm and low.  


“Count me in!” Kaito gave him a thumbs-up. Gonta pushed up his glasses to rub at his eye, his smile wide and goofy. Tsumugi took the sign-up sheet from his hand and clicked her pen, writing her name in the top slot before passing it to Angie.  


The boy sat back in his seat, “Thank you all. Gonta will not let you down!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope the story line is still easy to follow. I know I have a lot of ideas that running at once, but I swear I planned ahead!


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for a TEENY bit of violence (in comparison to the crazy gory stuff other people write)

The rusty hinges creaked as the entrance door hit a little bell above the frame, and a soft jingle chimed through the lobby. Behind the wide counter stood a man dressed in a red three-piece suit with a white trim. He greeted the guests with a bright smile, waving them over.  


“Ah, welcome to Dusk Root Inn! How many rooms would you like to book?”  


Koichi sauntered over to the attendant and leaned against the desk, “Actually, before we place down any orders, we’d like a look around the rooms. You know, sanitation and all.”  


A look of surprise flashed across his face, darting to the students, until his expression relaxed. The corners of his mouth tugged upwards into a smile, but his eyes remained mirthless.  


“That’s fine,” he retrieved a key with a large red flap from a hook behind him, “We have plenty of rooms available in case you decide to stay with us.”  


Following him out of the lobby, Koichi looked back at Kyoko, “You kids wait here, while I scope the place out!”  


Makoto and Sayaka paled at his statement, while Kyoko nodded and waited for him to leave. After a brief pause, she brushed past them to the counter, and studied the wall of room keys. There were four rows of hooks, with several empty spaces in the bottom two.  


“If Komaru were being kept here, then the key to her room wouldn’t be on display. But,” she pointed to the top row, filled with keys, “there could be a blockade on the third floor to keep guests from advancing, if she’s on the fourth floor.”  


Sayaka held up her hands, “Wait a second. If these people really are holding someone captive here, then why are they even accepting guests?”  


“This is a popular hotel, so they may attract more attention if they remained closed for a whole week.”  


“Alright,” Makoto walked to the hallway on the left, his fists clenched, “Let’s head straight for the top, then.”  


At the end of the corridor, the three decided to use the staircase instead of an elevator. They made it to the second floor before coming across a tall, metal gate with a plastic sign, forbidding entry. Makoto immediately darted to the elevator, pressing the button and planting his feet directly in front of the door.  


“Makoto, what are you doing? It could be a trap!” Sayaka pulled on his arm, trying to lure him out of the way.  


“Trap or not, my sister has to be up there and I’m getting her back,” he shrugged her hold off of him, his eyes trained on the door as it slowly glided open, “She’s the most important person to me, Sayaka. I can’t lose her.”  


Her breath hitched as she watched him step into the elevator, Kyoko following quickly after. She tried to move her legs, to join them before it was too late, but her body felt numb. When they disappeared behind the steel barrier, her knees buckled under her weight and her shoulders slumped like a puppet with snipped strings.  


Makoto heaved a breath and wiped at his face. Despite the ‘out of order’ notes next to the third and fourth buttons, he could feel the elevator moving up. Suddenly, it stopped, and the doors opened with a sharp ‘ding’.  


“I’m going to look this way,” he ran down the right end of the hall, skidding to a halt at the nearest room and jiggling the doorknob. He turned to the door beside it and tried again. And again.  


On the second floor, Sayaka wandered listlessly, dragging her feet as her mind wandered back to Makoto’s expression. His bright green eyes almost glowed with determination she’d never seen before, and his set jaw and pursed lips were void of mercy.  


“No, I’m being selfish again. She’s his sister, of course he’d put her before me. But,” she hugged herself, “where do I belong on his list?”  


A dull throb in her stomach made her stop, before turning back where she had just passed. The ache spiked as she stood before a room, and slowly turned the knob. To her surprise, the door opened, revealing a two-bed suite with a large television perched atop a maple wood dresser.  


“Hello?” she called, stepping inside and closing the door shut, “Um, Komaru?”  


A soft grunt answered from the corner of the room. Travelling further, Sayaka found a young girl curled up on the edge of the bed, a strip of duct-tape wrapped around her mouth, over her short dark hair. She struggled against hidden bonds behind her back, her ankles kicking uselessly to break out of thick, frayed ropes. Sayaka rushed over to the other side of the bed, catching her just before she fell off the mattress.  


“Are you Komaru Naegi?” she lifted her back onto the sheets, her fingers tweaking at the knot around the girl’s wrists. She nodded frantically, her words muffled behind the tape.  


“I’m Sayaka Maizono. Makoto and our other classmate are here to find you,” she carefully untied Komaru’s hands and switched to her legs, “They went to look upstairs.”  


“MMPH?!” she ferociously tore at the duct-tape, pulling it down enough to speak coherently, “NO!”  


“Damn it!” Makoto banged his fist against the last door, “I can’t get in any!”  


His eyesight blurred with tears, and he squeezed them tight, hanging his head low. He backed away from the wall and crouched down, hiding his face in his arms. Was Komaru even in this building? Was she still alive?  


“Makoto!” Kyoko’s shout startled him out of his thoughts, and he lost his balance on his heels, landing on his rear as something whizzed past his face. He looked over, mouth hung open and eyes wide, to see the attendant pointing a handgun at him. Kyoko, her face bruised as though she had been hit, struggled to pry his arm from around her neck.  


He bared his teeth in a snarl, “You brats have NO idea what you got yourselves into. I’m trying to keep my head here, and if that means I have to blow your brains out, I’m gonna do it!”  


“Is-Is my sister really here?!” the boy moved to stand, but froze when the gun pivoted to press against Kyoko’s head.  


“‘Sister’? That kid’s been on my last nerve all damn week! If those Steering pricks didn’t force her on me, I wouldn’t have to do this!” he nudged the barrel at her temple.  


“‘Steering’? Is that some organization making you do this? Why?”  


“I don’t know! But now that you heard of them, I can’t let you go,” he cocked the hammer, “Sorry ‘bout this.”  


Makoto closed his eyes, helpless to save his friend. Helpless to do anything. A loud bang echoed through the hall, then the floor beneath him pulsed from a following thud. He held his breath for the pain of a gunshot, but when nothing came, he peeked through the darkness of his eyelids. Kyoko crawled out from under the man, as he lay face down on the carpet, Sayaka standing behind him with a long hammer.  


“Sa… Saya…” he gazed up at her.  


She turned her attention to him and dropped the tool, running over to kneel before him, “Are you okay, Makoto?”  


“You...” he took both of her hands, “You saved me.”  


“Makoto!” Komaru charged at her brother, sliding into his arms on the floor, “Sayaka knew where I was and saved me! I love her so much!”  


He held her tight as he gawked at Sayaka, “How? You were on the second floor. I mean, it was blocked off, and…”  


The girl pushed a stray lock of hair behind her hair, “We found a toolbox in the janitor’s closet, along with a key to open the gate. Komaru told me about the man, and how she saw him with a gun. I…”  


She grimaced, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and let out a quiet sob, “I was so scared of losing you!”  


“Sayaka,” he moved a hand to rest at the small of her back.  


“I know I’m not the most important person to you, and I don’t care!” her hug grew tighter, “YOU’RE the most important person to ME!”  


Makoto squirmed out of her grasp, and drew his face to hers, claiming her plump lips in a deep kiss. Beside him, Komaru inched backwards until she could leap to her feet and run away to help Kyoko hold up Koichi by the elevator.  


“Guys, we need to go. Now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to see if anyone can guess the reference I made with the name of the hotel. Hint: I combined two things...
> 
> Also, in case I didn't express it as clearly as I hoped, Sayaka found Komaru with her intuition. I really liked that part of her character, and wanted to incorporate it in this story :)


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Junko's back, and really cruel.

A day had passed since Komaru’s return to her family, and Mr. Kizakura was admitted to the hospital for a bullet wound in his chest. Meanwhile, Makoto had been sharing Sayaka’s actions with anyone who would listen, much to the girl’s joy.  


“She was amazing!” he yelled, “I’d never seen anything like that. I mean, there I was, waiting to die, when I saw her standing over the man like a superhero!”  


Beside him, Sayaka blushed, “It wasn’t that cool, I was practically shaking the whole time!”  


“Well, it was scary!” he pecked her cheek, a toothy grin on his face, “But I feel safer just sitting next to you.”  


From the seat in front of him, Leon quirked an eyebrow, “Ain’t it kind of embarrassing for your girlfriend to save you?”  


“Leon, you don’t even HAVE a girlfriend,” Aoi quipped before turning back to the couple, “How’s Komaru? Is she alright?”  


“Mhm,” he nodded, “She even teased me a bit for hiding Sayaka from her all this time, ahaha!”  


Kiyotaka leaned forward, his expression serious, “What happened to the gunman?”  


“I remember Kyoko asking for a paramedic when she called the police, but we stayed with Mr. Kizakura the whole time, so I didn’t actually see him get arrested. He had to have been taken into custody, at least, though,” Makoto looked around the classroom, “Hey, where IS Kyoko?”  


Sakura answered from the back corner, “She is speaking with an underclassman at the moment, in her lab.”  


“Ooh, did someone else go missing already?” Junko smiled in her compact mirror as she reapplied her lip gloss. With a pout and wink, she snapped the mirror shut and dropped it, along with the makeup, into her black tote bag sitting on her desk. Pulling out her cell phone, she kicked her feet up and crossed her ankles.  


“Junko, I keep telling you every day: keep your feet on the floor!” Kiyotaka slammed his palm on his own desktop, his teeth bared in a scowl.  


She rolled her eyes, “What? Is that another scandal Gramps pulled in office that made everyone hate you?”  


The boy flinched back, shocked, before his gaze fell to the floor. Standing beside him, Mondo squared his shoulders and swept her bag off the desk, its contents flying across the room.  


He glared down at her, “Don’t ever bring that shit up like it matters.”  


“Oh, but doesn’t it?” her pitch rose into a child-like voice, her hands curling into loose fists under her chin, as if to imitate paws, “We can’t twust HIM, after everything his family put our country thwough!”  


Chihiro stood up from his chair, his hands pulled in toward his chest, “That’s not true! We trust Taka a lot, no matter what his grandfather did.”  


Junko tilted her head, feigning confusion, “Then… why was Makoto picked as Class Rep?”  


Down the hall, Tenko fidgeted with her fingernails. They’ve grown longer than she was used to, and she made a mental note to clip them later. Sitting in a leather chair next to her, Shuichi straightened his cap.  


“Alright then, thank you anyway,” Kyoko ended the call on her phone and turned back to them, “I’m sorry, you two, but because Shofuku temple is out in Fukuoka, it’s out of our police jurisdiction, and they won’t turn over information to me.”  


Tenko shifted in her seat, “Then-Then can we go to the station down there and talk to those detectives? I need to know what’s going on!”  


“They assured me that your statement was valuable to them, and that they’re working hard on it,” she returned to her own seat behind the large desk, “It’s fortunate that you worried enough to visit the temple. The window of time for their disappearance can be shortened down to somewhere between last Thursday and yesterday morning.”  


“Five days,” Shuichi put a hand over his mouth, “That’s still a long time to guess when someone’s gone missing.”  


“Yes, but this is also a group of roughly twelve people. Whether that makes it easier depends on why they’ve vanished in the first place.”  


She stopped when Tenko’s breath picked up, her hands buried in her thick, black hair. Shuichi looked at her sadly, gripping his dress pants to keep his hands at his sides as he watched her hyperventilate. He knew she wanted to be comforted, but probably not by a boy. Silently, Kyoko stepped forward and placed her hands on the girl’s shoulders, a surprised gasp passing her lips when her waist was wrapped in a desperate hug. Her cries muffled in layers of fabric, Tenko screamed and sobbed, until she could barely breathe. A sudden pressure formed on the top of her head, but the gentle strokes through her hair eased her into nuzzling against Kyoko’s stomach. The hand was smaller than her master’s, and covered by a glove when its fingertips brushed over the nape of her neck. She turned her head to the side and let her eyes fall closed.  


“Everything’s going to be okay,” Kyoko whispered, “Just try to focus on healing those cuts for now.”  


As the pair walked--and limped--out of the room, the girl returned to her own class. As she slid the door open, she felt something hard and sharp graze her cheek, flicking her ear before whizzing past. Mondo continued to throw anything he could get his hands on, and when Kyoko scanned the room for Kiyotaka to see why he wasn’t calming his boyfriend down, she noticed that her classmate was absent. In fact most of the students were gone, likely having left the room during the rampage. From the front of the classroom, Makoto and Sayaka stood their ground while Junko taunted Mondo.  


“Mondo, she’s just getting what she wants when you do this!” the boy yelled.  


Sayaka poked her head out from behind Makoto, “Please, Kiyotaka needs you right now, and this will only upset him further!”  


“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” he whipped a thick textbook at the two, its rigid hard cover corner spinning rapidly toward her face. Frozen, she shut her eyes tight, clutching her boyfriend’s sleeve. Kyoko watched as Mukuro suddenly blurred in front of her, catching the book in her good hand.  


She straightened her back, her shoulders relaxing, “Are you alright, Sayaka?”  


The girl blushed, “Oh, yes-um, thank you.”  


Suddenly, Mondo dropped to his knees, out of breath. Seizing the opportunity, Junko walked up to him, and pulled out a small device. The tip shot out and pierced his stomach, before a loud buzz was drowned out by his scream. Kyoko rushed over to them and snatched the taser out of the girl’s hand, detaching the small metal pincers from his skin. Mondo keeled over, his panting heavier than before, and pressed his forehead to the carpet. His pompadour pushed back, matted and frayed, leaving a space between his face and the floor.  


“Geez, Detective, way to play favorites,” Junko muttered, her hands on her hips.  


She turned to her, the taser in her hand slowly retracting its cord, “He had already stopped before you even pulled this out. There was no need for it anymore.”  


“I’m just taking precautionary measures. Maybe if you’d known what that means, your hands would still look normal.”  


Her brows furrowed lower, and her mouth drooped into a grimace, “I know about the Steering Committee, and that you’re somehow connected to it.”  


Junko harrumphed, and in a single turn, pulled her pigtails into a single high ponytail and procured a pair of glasses, “That’s quite a serious accusation, if you really understand the intentions of this covert organization. Do you wish for me to repudiate such a baseless claim?”  


“But you confess that you know of them, don’t you?” her tone indicated that she wasn’t asking a question, she was demanding a response nonetheless.  


“Unless this is a poorly executed interrogation, Detective, I am not obliged to speak about this matter,” she turned and walked toward the door, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have important business elsewhere.”  


The few left behind surveyed the damage of the classroom. Desks were tipped on their sides or pushed into clumps away from the center of the room. Books, pencils, and papers were scattered over the floor. Under the class windows, Junko’s bag lay, while makeup brushes and palettes had landed nearby.  


“Are you okay, Mondo?” Makoto hefted him to his feet, “You should go to Mikan for that-”  


“Taka,” he winced, clutching his stomach, “I gotta find Taka.”  


At a slow pace, Mondo ran out of the room, stray hairs sticking to his forehead. He stumbled down the flight of stairs and pushed through the doors of the main building, heading towards the 78th Class’ dormitories.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Every time I make Junko open her mouth, I make myself feel guilty for hurting the feelings of fictional characters that I adore so much. Is that normal?


	25. Loved Ones

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little break from the main plot, to make you invested in some of the minor characters.

A clamor of bells jingled as Sonia skipped through the hall of her dormitory. Her sleek, blond hair billowed out of a crown of a braid that wrapped around her head, clipped in place with an orange bow above her ear. Her brown skirt bounced past her knees, weighed down by a string of silver bells sewn along its white trim. She rapped excitedly on one of the room doors, hugging the bundle of cloth in her arms as she felt the tremor of heavy footsteps.  


Gundham swung the door open, a grim look etched in his features, “What is the source of this gaiety so early at sunrise, my Dark Queen?”  


“Happy Fall Equinox!” she presented the folded piece of fabric, “You remember from last year, don’t you?”  


The man silently took it by two corners and let it unravel to reveal a dark red sweater that, upon closer inspection, looked handmade. His vision floated back to her glowing face, as she tugged at the hem of her yellow jumper.  


“My mother made them herself this time!”  


“Ah, yes, I see,” he turned his face away, flustered, “Please wait a moment while I change, then.”  


When he stepped back out of his room, Sonia threw her arms around his neck and struck a searing kiss on his cheek. Gundham’s hamsters squirmed and squeaked from under his scarf, crawling over one another to win the woman’s affections for themselves.  


“You have reached the cellular of Kiyotaka Ishimaru! I apologize for any inconvenience my absence serves you, but you are welcome to leave a message aft-” the boy’s recorded voice was interrupted by a sharp ‘beep’. Mondo found himself smiling until he remembered he needed to speak.  


“Oh, uh, Taka. I’m calling again to check up on you,” he cringed at his own words, “I mean, I wanted to see how you were. I’m-I know I fucked up. I’m sorry, Taka.”  


Unable to think of anything else, he ended the voicemail and tossed his phone on the couch cushion beside him. Takemichi returned to the living room, holding a can of soda in each hand. He stepped around his friend and plopped into the seat on the other end, before placing one of the cold cans on a short coffee table in front of him.  


“Still nothing?” he asked, digging his fingertip under the aluminum tab and flicking it up with a ‘hiss’.  


“Nah. I left another message this time,” Mondo lifted the other can and popped it open with one hand, “Thanks, man.”  


The blond boy wiped at the corner of his mouth with his thumb, and licked off a drop of his drink, “No problem. Glad to have you back for a while.”  


“Yeah,” he scratched the back of his head, his dark locks tangled with sweat and grime, “I just gotta wait ‘til he’s not mad at me anymore. When I got to his room, he ignored me with his shitty studying music.”  


“Dating sounds hard.”  


“That’s ‘cause it is,” he flopped against the back of the couch, “Someone naggin’ ya about staying healthy, out of trouble, don’t do this, don’t go over there.”  


“Why would anyone want that?”  


He took a swig of his soda, “It makes him happy. And then that makes you happy. He… makes it worth all the bullshit.”  


Takemichi put the can back onto his table and rubbed the cool condensation around in his hands, “You want to go out?”  


Mondo smirked, “Hope your talkin’ about riding out with the guys again.”  


The boy smacked him in the chest, his cheeks flushed red, “Yes! God, as if I’d wanna be with you any longer than I already am, you asshole.”  


“I’m kidding, calm down!” he laughed, then quieted down to an embarrassed half-smile, “You know, uh, if you end up finding a guy you like, someday, I can help you out.”  


With a smirk, Takemichi looked back at him, “You should save that for when you’re out of the dog house.”  


“What’d you say, you little shit?!” his arm wrapped around his friend’s neck as his other hand curled into a fist and dug into the boy’s scalp, ruffling his already mussy hair, “Better take that back before you go bald!”  


“Ow, fuck off!”  


“I already told you, it’s nothing,” Hiyoko leaned against the wall inside of her own research lab. Wooden planks decorated the space high above her head, hanging from thick chains that kept her walkways steady as she moved from one platform to another. In the back of the room was a wide stage, with tall staircases at each end that connected to the lowest planks.  


In front of her, Mahiru’s frown deepened, “Well, I’m sorry, but I just don’t believe that.”  


“That’s fine,” she pushed herself away from the wall, and walked past her, “You don’t have to believe it, but I don’t have to say anything you wanna hear.”  


She cringed at the small gasp that escaped her lips when the woman’s hand wrapped around her thin wrist.  


“We need to talk about this, Hiyoko,” Mahiru loosened her grip, “Please. It’s important.”  


“It’s only important to you,” she turned to look back at her, orange eyes flashing in an indignant glare, “Just let it go, already.”  


“If I let it go, then you’ll leave me, too, won’t you?”  


Hiyoko’s face softened from the shock of her words, and let her gaze fall to her feet, “Wouldn’t that be for the best?”  


“How could I ever think that?” she asked, her hands enveloping Hiyoko’s, “You’re one of my best friends! I’d never, ever want you to leave!”  


“But,” the woman drew her own hand up to cover one of Mahiru’s, “I want to be more than that, to you.”  


Her brows furrowed, and she pressed a soft kiss to the top of her friend’s head, “I know. I’m sorry I can’t give you that piece of myself.”  


“It’s okay. I just… wanted to try to get over these stupid feelings, after hurting you so much with my own jealousy. I thought that maybe… maybe if I ignored it, we could go back to the way things were.”  


Mahiru offered a small smile, “If it makes you feel better, I don’t plan on dating anyone else anytime soon.”  


“So, no need to go after that pretty-boy from the 79th with a bat?”  


She laughed, “Rantaro’s a sweet guy, but I don’t see him that way.”  


Hiyoko slipped her hands out of the woman’s grasp to wrap her arms around her in a tight embrace. As another pair of arms held her close, she nuzzled her face into the crook of Mahiru’s neck, and breathed in the scent of her shampoo. Flowery, like the red carnations left on Satou’s grave. But at that moment, Hiyoko didn’t feel any bitterness.  


In the dim lighting of her lab, Kyoko sifted through a stack of articles. Steering Committee. Steering Committee. ‘Hotel Manager Found Dead in Prison Cell’. Steering Committee. Steering Committee. ‘Fire at Shofuku Temple in Fukuoka; No Reported Injuries’. Steering Committee. Steering Committee. ‘Novoselic Ambassador Assassinated By Unknown Figure in Kyoto’. Steering Committee.  


“Damn it,” she muttered, dropping the papers onto her desk and lacing her fingers together, her elbows resting on the wooden surface, “I’m missing something important.”  


Her eyes travelled to a framed picture sitting next to her antique clock. She carefully lifted the frame and wiped at the thick blanket of dust that coated a woman’s face. Lavender hair pinned in a messy bun, sloped eyes squinting as soft cheeks pushed up with a bright smile. Sitting prominently beside the woman’s mouth was a small beauty mark.  


“What am I missing?”


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a little bit of a needle in here.

On Saturday, breakfast was peaceful. Junko had not returned since Wednesday’s incident, and neither had Mondo. Mr. Kizakura was released from the hospital, and expected to return to school on Monday. Mikan spared a glance at Ibuki to her right, who was preoccupied with showing the Ultimate Imposter how she made twin horns out of her hair, twisting sections of black and white-bleached locks into cones atop her head. To her left, Hiyoko hugged Mahiru’s arm, the pair smiling brightly as they ate. When she finished her own meal, she drifted into her research lab to find a small figure lying on one of the cots. The woman flinched, before slowly walking over.  


“He...Hello?” she swallowed, “Um, Himiko?”  


The redhead shifted, turning over to look up at her, “Hey.”  


“How can-Do you-May I be of assistance?”  


She weakly pushed herself to sit up, blinking the sleepiness out of her eyes, “I was waiting to talk to you.”  


“Oh, I’m sorry I-I’m sorry I made you wait,” Mikan began to curl into herself.  


“S’alright. Not even about me. It’s about Tenko,” her brows knitted, “You gotta talk to her.”  


“What? No! No, I-I-I can’t, after what I did!”  


“Do you feel bad about it?”  


The nurse took a deep breath, “When I realized… what I did… I have never hated myself more.”  


“She’s been asking about you lately,” Himiko slid off the bed, “She told me that she’s worried about you.”  


“But WHY?!” she hid her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking as she tried to hold back sobs, “I’m a MONSTER!”  


“No, you’re not,” a shrill voice called out from the doorway.  


“Ah, Nagito!” she rushed over to the man, catching him just before he collapsed. His pale skin looked sickly, and his legs shook under his own weight, as he leaned against his classmate for support. She guided him to lie on an empty cot and immediately secured a cuff around his thin arm to measure his blood pressure.  


She worried at her bottom lip, “Your condition has gotten-has gotten worse. Have you been bleeding lately?”  


“Just a lot from my nose, really,” he let out a light laugh, “Figures this would happen to me, huh?”  


“I promise, you-you aren’t dying,” Mikan shuffled to her glass cabinet to retrieve a syringe and IV bag. Soaking a cotton ball with rubbing alcohol, she wiped at a patch of skin on the back of his hand, then pierced the silvery needle through and taped it down. Behind her, Himiko covered her mouth with a wince.  


“Please hold this,” she handed Nagito the bag of clear fluids and unscrewed its cap at the end of the long tube, twisting it into the opening of the needle. The nurse rolled an IV pole from the other side of the cot, and hung the bag on its hooks.  


She breathed out a sigh, and turned back to Himiko and bowed low, “I’m sorry for wasting your time, but Tenko shouldn’t-Tenko shouldn’t be near me.”  


After a moment of silence, the girl took a step forward, and poked her in the forehead, “You confuse me.”  


Akane’s eyes followed the metal bar that rose and fell in rhythm with her counting. Lying atop the bench, Tenko gasped out another breath, as her trembling arms pushed the weight up once more. Nearby, Sakura held Aoi’s feet to the floor and tallied her sit-ups.  


“Alright,” Akane grabbed the middle of the bar and guided it back to its pegs, “Watch your head.”  


The girl craned her neck to narrowly avoid smacking into the barbell, and wiped a sheen of sweat from her forehead. She reached for her water bottle next to the bench press when a figure loomed over her.  


“Tenko Chabashira!” a male’s voice boomed.  


She flinched, nearly stumbling backwards until she looked up, “Don’t do that!”  


Guilt flashed across Kiyotaka’s face, “I’m sorry for startling you, but I wanted to ask why you are exercising just a week after your serious injuries?”  


“They’re almost fully healed, and I couldn’t wait any longer to get back into training,” she rolled her shoulders, “I’m not allowed to do much other than upper body, though.”  


“I see. If Mikan allowed it, then there should be nothing for me to worry about,” he smiled, “You may carry on.”  


As he walked back to meet Chihiro at the treadmills, Tenko felt a pit in her stomach. Mikan.  


“Hey, Taka seems to be doing better than I expected,” Aoi joined the girls with a smile, Sakura close behind.  


Akane stepped off the platform behind the bench, “Did ya hear from Mondo at all?”  


“No, but I assume he is taking residence at one of his members’ homes,” Sakura said. Tenko pushed herself to her feet, a tingling sensation crawling along her heels. She quietly followed them to an empty space in the corner of the gym and stretched out her legs, her hands gripping the rubbery tips of her sneakers. Her spine popped as she raised her hips into an arch, and her skin tensed with a dull ache as she pulled her arms in, across her chest.  


“You alright, kid?” Akane spared a glance over her shoulder, her body contorted with her ankles crossed behind her head, “You’re awfully quiet right now.”  


“Just thinking,” she cracked the stiffness out of her knuckles.  


To her left, Sakura hummed, “There has been a lot for you to think about. I understand if you would prefer to keep these thoughts to yourself, but we wish to support you as well.”  


“I know,” she sighed, “Kiyotaka brought up Mikan back there, and I just… I remembered how I chickened out Tuesday.”  


There was a pause, before Akane spoke again, “You’ve never had an ex before, huh?”  


“Is that bad?”  


“No, not at all, hon!” Aoi patted her on the shoulder, “It’s just that this is a normal problem people have when they’re near a former flame. You don’t know where you stand with her, after being in a relationship closer than friends. Do you feel like you can’t go back to before dating?”  


Tenko looked away, hugging herself, “Maybe…”  


“You oughta go and talk it out with her,” Akane said, her body suddenly in a downward dog position.  


“Do you need someone to go with you?” Sakura asked.  


“No,” she stood back up, “I think I’ll be okay by myself. Thank you, though. I’ll see you girls later!”  


With that, she ran out of the gym, bounded down the flight of stairs, and stopped at her wheelchair. She hadn’t been using it often, as she couldn’t access any elevators within the school and needed to abandon it every time she travelled to a higher floor. She gently grasped the handles and pushed it down the hallway. Upon approaching the nurse’s office, however, she heard a male voice.  


“I tried to-I tried to hold her captive so-so she’d stay with me,” Mikan wept, “I’m… I’m a monster.”  


Nagito propped himself up on his elbows, “For someone with so much medical knowledge, you can’t be pretty dense about yourself.”  


“What? I don’t…”  


“After everything that was happening with Junko, do you really think anyone would be mentally sound?” the man’s voice lowered, “You don’t know when she’ll come back, or what she’ll do next. I suggest you make this time count.”  


Suddenly, the door slid open and smacked into the wooden frame with a ‘crack’.  


“MIKAN!” Tenko rushed in, her hands up in a defensive pose, “ARE YOU OKAY?!”  


“Oh, speak of the devil,” the man laughed.


	27. Chapter 27

A look of bewilderment flashed across her face, “Oh, I thought… Wait…”  


Nagito cringed as he rolled onto his side, swinging his legs over the cot and pushing his body up.  


“I’ll get out of your hair, Mikan, while you two talk this out,” he said. Grabbing ahold of his IV pole, he rose with steady feet and began to walk out of the room.  


“No, no, no!” the woman protested, “You’re very sick, right now! You can’t-You can’t be out of-”  


“It’s alright,” he waved it off, “I have someone else to help me, anyway. You need this.”  


Tenko narrowed her eyes, “You really shouldn’t…”  


“I’ll be fine,” he closed the door and walked a few steps down the hall, before hunching over and muffling a strangled cough, “I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine.”  


Back in her research lab, Mikan worried at her lip, “I hope he’s okay.”  


“Yeah,” the girl murmured, and looked back at her, “Um, I just remembered… I came here to talk to you, and…”  


She took a step back, “I’m sorry, again, for the way I treated you.”  


“It’s okay,” Tenko’s gaze fell to the floor.  


“No,” her voice shook as she leaned back against the countertop of her desk, “It’s-It’s not.”  


Walking up to her, she reached out a hand, before dropping it, “I know, I just… I don’t want to see you so sad.”  


“I deserve to be sad, I deserve to be-I deserve to be miserable. I hurt you so much, I’m disgusted with-with myself.”  


“I forgive you, though,” Tenko spoke softly, “And I want you to forgive yourself.”  


A stray tear trickled down Mikan’s cheek, before she dabbed it off with the edge of her sleeve, “What if I hurt you again?”  


“Then… I’ll see if I can forgive you again,” her pink tongue darted out to lick at her dry lips, “But that hasn’t happened yet. Maybe it’ll never happen.”  


“You shouldn’t be with someone you expect to hurt you,” the woman hugged herself.  


Tenko swallowed a pool of spit in the back of her throat, “Well, neither should you.”  


“But, I deserve to be with-”  


“Me,” she grabbed Mikan by her shoulders, “Or Ibuki, or Mahiru, or anyone else! Just…”  


She hung her head, her hands trembling from the hollow pit in her stomach as helplessness and frustration crept back into her mind. Curling her lip, she slid her hands down Mikan’s arms and pulled her closer, until their chests touched.  


“Just not Junko. I-I can’t… I can’t keep watching you suffer like that.”  


“Tenko,” she gently rested her chin on the girl’s shoulder, “will you… tell me about our dates, again?”  


Nagito stumbled across the stone path outside, a bead of sweat rolling down the nape of his neck. The wheels of his stand wobbled over cracks in the cement, until he stopped in front of the dormitory. Sucking in a deep breath, he pushed the door open. A gust of cool air hit his face as he stepped inside, his messy white hair stirring behind his head.  


“Hey, Nagito,” Rantaro waved from the couch in the common room, “You alright, man?”  


He forced a smile, “Yeah, just stopping by for a visit. Is Kokichi here?”  


The boy set his magazine on the coffee table and stood up, “Last I checked, he was in his room. I’ll take you to him.”  


“Oh, no, it’s no problem. I can do it myself.”  


“But I want to,” he smiled, a crease in his brow, “really.”  


His mouth hung open, and he blinked away the look of shock in his eyes. Wordlessly, he nodded, and put a hand on Rantaro’s shoulder before they slowly approached the staircase.  


Once they reached their friend’s room, Nagito knocked, “Oh, sir, your dear guests have arrived~”  


Kokichi threw his door open at the sound of his friend’s voice, before his excited smile twisted into shock as he caught sight of the man’s IV. He ushered him into his room, Rantaro following close behind, and led him to his bed.  


“What went through your head to make you think leaving a qualified nurse to come here was a good idea?” he grumbled, pulling his thick comforter over his friend’s frail body.  


“I just wanted to see you, is all,” Nagito smiled wistfully.  


Crossing his arms, Kokichi pouted, “You’re an idiot.”  


Nearby, Rantaro laughed, “You know, for a so-called Supreme Leader, you can be pretty compassionate.”  


“Well, duh! How else am I supposed to recruit new followers without luring them into a false sense of security and trust?”  


His friend smirked, walking over to the cluttered desk beside his closet, “Yeah, you’re right. Hey, how about we play a little?”  


A faint smile graced Kokichi’s face, growing wider when his eyes fell on a familiar deck of cards in Rantaro’s hand, “Oh, I am going to ANNIHILATE you two!”  


After a few rounds of dueling, there was yet another visitor knocking on his door.  


“I’ll get it,” Rantaro pushed himself to his feet and walked over, “I think I know who it is, anyway.”  


Kokichi twisted his back to look behind him, meeting Shuichi’s gaze, his eyes a lighter grey than any other he’d seen before. The next few seconds were smothered in silence, the air tense as Shuichi waited for permission to enter, and Kokichi refusing with a small frown.  


“Hey, Shuichi,” Nagito called, “Come join us.”  


He glanced at the boy, “But-”  


“Fine,” Kokichi glowered at the floor, “Just get in here already”  


Tugging at the bill of his cap, Shuichi stepped forward, “I’m sorry, Kokichi. What I said the other day… I took it too far.”  


“It’s funny,” he said, “Everyone helping one another to talk about why they’re messed up in the head, but I don’t think any of you ever really prepared for what would come out of each others’ mouths.”  


“Kokichi-”  


“Do you remember how this whole thing started? Kaede spent a couple months with us, and thought we needed to be open, talking about how we really feel, being honest,” his laughter was soft and bitter, “How can you all be so stupid to expect that from ME?”  


“I know that you have a hard time expressing your true feelings, and I lost my patience,” Shuichi turned his head away, “After what happened with Hajime…”  


“You say that like you knew him.”  


“I didn’t,” he shook his head, “Not really. But, I know that you did, and I understand it hurts.”  


“What does that even matter? He’s gone, and I’ll never see him again.”  


“How do you know that, though?”  


Kokichi paused, “The Hajime Hinata I knew is dead.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to make this a very different situation from the common "I can fix him, he said it wouldn't happen again" message. Mikan would always apologize and ask for forgiveness when she does something "wrong" (although it's almost never wrong) and here, she doesn't ask Tenko to forgive her because she understands the gravity of her actions. I hope the distinction is clear enough here, but if not, I can edit some of the dialogue.


	28. Chapter 28

Kyoko stuck another pushpin into the corkboard of her wall, before uncapping her marker and circling several parts of the new article clipping. ‘Togami conglomerate’. ‘Bankruptcy’. ‘Fraudulent checks’.  


“This has to be a part of the web,” she thought aloud, “But did the Steering Committee really do all of this?”  


“Excuse me,” a quiet voice echoed through the room. She whirled her head to see Kirumi, her pixie-cut smoothed down beneath a black, lacy headband.  


The girl bowed, “I apologize for interrupting you, Miss Kirigiri, but I have acquired another lead in your investigation.”  


“Is it someone from this school?”  


“Yes,” she nodded, “From a witness I spoke to, the Steering Committee was conducting unauthorized human experimentation within Hope’s Peak Academy.”  


“You spoke to these witnesses personally? Who are they?” Kyoko turned to her desk and scribbled on a sheet of paper.  


“That information cannot be disclosed right now, but they had directed me to the scene, and I was able to collect DNA samples. The results came in today, with confirmation that Hajime Hinata was inside the facility at one point.”  


“So, you’re saying that-”  


“KYOKO!” the door slammed against the wall as Shuichi rushed inside, panting heavily, “I found… I found out that Hajime… Hinata was a human test subject!”  


The two blinked, before Kyoko gave a curt nod and a thumbs up, “Good work, Shuichi.”  


“Do you remember when we had dinner together here, after you had to spend all day in your lab caring for people?” Tenko smiled, rubbing her thumbs over the backs of Mikan’s hands as they sat on the middle cot, “I didn’t realize that I asked you on a date until Aoi told me to be more polite!”  


The nurse lowered her head sheepishly, “I think so. I remember… you took a bite out of a sandwich, and started-and started crying?”  


“Oh, right, I-um, I completely forgot about that part,” she laughed, embarrassed, “I got a little too emotional back there, huh?”  


“It’s okay to be homesick. I remember how close you seemed to Ryuuji, when I met him.”  


The girl sighed, and stared down at the cream-colored tiles below, “Yeah. This year is the first time I’ve lived away from my master since I was eight. Now, I don’t even know where he is.”  


“Ah, I’m sorry!” Mikan furrowed her brows, “I shouldn’t have-I shouldn’t have mentioned him, after he…”  


“No, I would have thought about him later, anyways, even if you didn’t say something. I’ve been worrying about them all everyday this week. Master is really strong because of Neo-Aikido training, but we’re the only two people who practice it. One of the priests, Iruka, has to take medicine every morning for his heart, and I don’t know if he has it with him, wherever he is,” she started counting on her fingers, “Then Inukai and Tsubame can’t eat meat, and Itachi has a vitamin deficiency that makes him faint a lot. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to them.”  


“You really do care for them, don’t you?”  


“Of course! They helped me find my talent, and raised me after my parents’ accident. They’re like my family, in a way.”  


The nurse fidgeted with the hem of her scrubs, “I haven’t ever forgotten how kind you are. Even though you’re so strong, you don’t ever-you don’t ever act like you’re above others.”  


“Ahaha, I’m still working on that, actually,” she scratched the top of her head, “Kaito and Kokichi still get on my nerves, and I haven’t gotten close to Korekiyo, yet, but I’ve been able to catch myself more. The other boys in my class aren’t so bad, too.”  


“That makes me happy,” Mikan glanced at the medicine cabinet to her right, “Um, may I do something for you?”  


She quirked an eyebrow, “What is it?”  


“I’d like… to be a real nurse to you this time.”  


Shuichi rubbed his arm, “I don’t think we should keep hiding this from Tenko.”  


“I understand that you sympathize with her concerns, but the Shofuku priests are still in danger by this organization. If we compromise their condition, they could be put at further risk.”  


“Kirumi’s right,” Kyoko’s eyes flitted back to the wall of articles, “We’re in contact with other families to keep them safe while our classmates continue to live here. However, Ryuuji Kobayashi and Makoto’s family are the closest to Hope’s Peak. Because his sister was already targeted, Makoto knows enough not to be left in the dark like everyone else.”  


“But, Sonia’s cousin-”  


“-was an ambassador of their country,” she interrupted, “He would have been very easy to find from the media attention, and heavily immersed in politics. But Komaru Naegi was an average high school student on her way home when she was kidnapped. There was nothing special that separated her from any other girl, except that her older brother goes here, and she was found rather close to the school compared to her house. Along with the fire at Shofuku temple, and the Togami conglomerate facing bankruptcy despite their wealth, I’m sensing foul play.”  


“What about Junko?” Shuichi asked, “You said she seemed to recognize the Steering Committee by name. Is anyone looking for her, too?”  


Kyoko sighed, “We looked into her parents’ residence, but they haven’t seen or heard from her in weeks. I questioned Mukuro about it, but apparently she’s lost contact with her since Wednesday.”  


“I know I already said you’re the best nurse in the world, but you really take the pain away like magic!” Tenko stood atop the fresh gauze taped over the soles of her feet and wiggled her toes, “Thank you for this, by the way.”  


The woman shook her head, “I should thank you.”  


“‘Me’?” she parroted, “What did I do?”  


“You’ve forgiven me, and you’re giving me a chance to-a chance to make up for what I did.”  


“I guess I just like you that much,” Tenko said, tightening the knot in her shoelaces, “even though you kind of scared me that time.”  


“I scared myself, too,” she whispered, before turning toward the door, “I should let you go, now, before your friends worry.”  


“Wait,” she leapt to her feet, “can I see you tomorrow?”  


Mikan stared back at her, “Do you… want to see me?”  


“Yeah! We can, um,” the girl , “maybe we can go for ice cream again? We never really got to go alone.”  


After a few moments of stunned silence, the corners of her mouth twitched, until her lips stretched into a bright smile, “I would-I-I would like that very, very, much!”  


Kirumi squared her shoulders, “I will speak with the Novoselic royal family for further details in the ambassador’s death. Perhaps it is best if we also look into bank records of the Togami conglomerate, in case of a paper trail.”  


“I’m on it,” Kyoko pulled out her cell phone, “I know which bank Byakuya’s father uses.”  


“What can I do?” Shuichi asked.  


“Keep an eye out for Junko Enoshima.”


	29. Dating Problems

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're going on a date, in our favorite rocket... plate? SAILING THROUGH THE SKIES-!

In Miu’s room, Kaede and Tsumugi sat on the girl’s bed as she strutted into view, wearing a sleeveless blouse that showed her midriff, and a short denim skirt.  


“How ‘bout this, then?” she crossed her arms under her bosom, her dark bra showing through the white silk, “It looks pretty business-casual, if you ask me.”  


Tsumugi closed her slacked jaw, “Um, do you have anything with sleeves, that goes all the way down to your hips?”  


“Maybe a dress!” Kaede suggested, her eyes locked firmly on her friend’s black stilettos, “Just… anything appropriate for meeting a partner’s parents.”  


“Look, I’ve never done this before! I don’t know what’s appropriate for this occasion, and I've only got one shot at this before he gets back on the plane tonight.”  


“We know,” she struggled to maintain her focus away from the lacy garter belt strapped around the girl’s thigh, “That’s why we’re here to help you. You’re our friend, and we know making a good impression on Professor Iidabashi is important to you.”  


“Hey!” Tsumugi called from Miu’s closet, “Why not this? It’s conservative, but not too formal, and pink is a really good color on you!”  


Miu snatched the dress off its hanger, , “Where the fuck did this come from?”  


“Wait a second,” Kaede gasped, “That’s MINE!”  


“Oh, yeah! I remember now,” she held it up to her front and looked in her mirror, “I got this from that shitty sleepover a while back!”  


“You mean the sleepover from three months ago?! Why would you take someone else’s dress? I couldn’t find it for my summer recital!”  


“It was before I knew you, alright?”  


The girl pinched the bridge of her nose, “That… actually makes it worse, to be honest.”  


Miu groaned, “Okay, okay, I’ll grab something else. How about, uh, this one?”  


“Wha-That’s my jumper!” Tsumugi yelled.  


On the other side of the dormitory, Kiibo studied himself in the mirror. A thin, red necktie hung from the gap in his metallic collar that covered his neck. Clunky metal pieces pushed against fabric from inside of a dark blue blazer, its sleeves rolled up just below his elbows.  


“Alright!” Kaito cheered beside him, “Now for the pants!”  


Kokichi flopped onto his side on top of the boy’s bed, “No way! He should go nude like he always does!”  


“But Kiibo must be a gentleman for Professor and Miu,” Gonta stepped forward with a comb he found on Kaito’s dresser, and scraped it across Kiibo’s sleek, white spikes. Seeing no result, he pressed it harder against the metal surface, until the plastic teeth bent back and snapped off.  


Beside him, Ryoma brushed a stray piece off his shoulder, “I’m sure his hair will be fine like that.”  


“Holy crap, dude!” Kaito gaped at the bare shaft in Gonta’s hand, “That was my only comb!”  


“Ooh, looks like you’re gonna need to make a tough choice, soon,” sitting up, Kokichi grinned at his classmate, “Get a buzz cut, or a perm.”  


The boy tangled his fingers through his tall, gelled spikes, “No way am I doing either of those!”  


Beside him, Kiibo sighed, “Look, guys, I appreciate that you all want to help me with this, but I know if Miu and I just be ourselves, the professor will accept that we love each other.”  


The group fell silent, before Kokichi bellowed a laugh, “Oh my God! You really DO need our help, Kiiboy!”  


“Hang on a second, okay?!” Akane swiped the denim vest out of Angie’s hands, and turned to Tenko, “What do you mean you’re going on another date?! That’s not why you went to talk to her yesterday!”  


“Well, no, I didn’t mean to do that, it just… it just happened!” the girl crossed her arms and looked away with a blush.  


Her head hanging upside down off her friend’s bed, Himiko opened her eyes, “Nyeh, maybe someone should really go with you.”  


“But, Mikan told me you went over to get us to talk again.”  


Angie nodded, “Mhm, mhm! Atua was sad about the tragic end to your love, so Himiko asked the pretty nurse to beg for your forgiveness!”  


“You’re saying this whole mess was your idea?” Akane grit her teeth.  


“Atua wished for all to be happy again~”  


Tenko stepped forward, pulling down the white half-button shirt that hugged her curves, “You were fine yesterday when I went to her lab alone. Why do you have a problem with it now?”  


“Because now you’ll be away from school, and we won’t be able to get to you if something happens again.”  


“I can take care of myself, can’t I? And I want to give her another chance.”  


“No, you’re not going to be alone with her for even a SECOND,” she puffed out her chest and widened her stance, effectively blocking the door.  


“I’m almost an adult! You can’t tell me what to do, so just move aside and let me go!”  


The woman flared her nostrils and leaned in closer, “Make me, kid.”  


Down the hall, Miu swung her door open and briskly strode out, her pleated plaid skirt swaying as she made her way to the boys’ side of the dormitory.  


Tsumugi rushed after her, “Wait, you forgot to put your hair up! And we still need to-”  


“Fuck all o’ that!” she yelled, “I gotta see Kiibo!”  


She banged on Kaito’s door and crossed her arms, tapping her foot impatiently, “I know you dragged him in there! Let him out! We have to be at the restaurant in half an hour, and I'll be damned if you shit-faced pricks ruin this for me!”  


Opening it a crack, Kaito smiled nervously, “Ehehe, hey, Miu. He’s still getting ready, so if you could just wait a few more minutes-”  


“You’ve been helping Kiibo with a date of his own?” Maki glared at him from the common room, her deft fingers gripping the thin strap of her red drawstring slung over her shoulder.  


“Uh, well, it’s not exactly a date he needed help with, but, um…” his eyes darted to the floor, “I’ll… start getting dressed.”  


As soon as the door shut, Miu groaned and stomped over to an empty seat on the couch, spreading her legs wide and leaning back, “Why are boys so dumb?!”  


“Not ‘boys’, just mine,” Maki quipped.  


From Miu’s room, Kaede walked over to Tsumugi. The girl turned and sighed, “Do you think they’ll ever get the hang of this?”  


She shrugged sadly, “I don’t know, but… helping out feels so bittersweet. It feels good to help Miu with her dating problems, but I wish I had dating problems of my own.”  


“You wish you had problems?”  


“Not so much problems that I wish I had a date,” Kaede chuckled. Suddenly, a door behind them burst open, and Akane staggered backwards into the hall, wiping a speck of blood from her nose. Tenko charged at her, but smacked her shoulder against the wall when her opponent evaded. A sleeve of her white shirt had been torn off, the fabric bunched around her wrist like a bracelet, and her hair was tousled in its low ponytail.  


“Is that the best you’ve got?!” Akane taunted, before approaching with a front handspring that allowed her heel to collide with the girl’s forearm, as she blocked the attack and grabbed her ankle.  


“No, THIS is all I’ve got!” Tenko screamed as she swung her right leg to kick Akane’s side, knocking the wind out of the woman and tackling her to the ground, “I need to change my shirt, now! I loved this shirt!”  


“Why would you even wear a white shirt to an ice cream date?!”  


“Because I prefer cups over cones!”  


Tsumugi covered her mouth with her hands and flinched away at the sound of a hard slap.  


Kaede, however, looked on with discontentment, “Yeah, that’s an issue I never thought of.”


	30. Chapter 30

“Oh my goodness, are you o-are you okay?” Mikan gasped at the sight of her date. The girl’s cheek was glowing red and slightly swollen, and she walked with a slight limp.  


“Yeah, just had to convince my friend of, uh, something,” she laughed, “But I checked my feet, and they’re a-okay!”  


“I see. Then, will you at least let me…” the nurse dug through her handbag and pulled out a small tube of ointment, screwing the cap off and squeezing a dollop of clear paste onto her finger. Tenko gave her a lopsided smile and turned her cheek to her, feeling the cool gel spread over her soreness before hearing the crinkle of a band-aid wrapper. Looking her up and down, she noticed that her date was wearing a polka dot dress that flared out below her knees, and felt a wave of relief wash over her as she remembered turning down Angie’s suggestion of a striped polo shirt.  


“There, all done,” Mikan pulled her hand away with a blush, “How does it feel?”  


“Better already!” she beamed, but cringed from a lingering tenderness and held her cheek, “Uh, it really did feel better at the time.”  


The woman tugged at one of her long sleeves, “Do you… still want to go, or maybe we should just-maybe we should, um-”  


“No, no, no. I’m super excited to do this with you! Do you know what flavor you want?”  


“Oh, um, I might get, um, coffee?”  


Tenko scratched her neck, “I don’t think I’ve ever tasted coffee! Is it good?”  


“Well, a lot of people don’t really like it, but-but I could share, if you want to try some.”  


As they left the school campus, another couple stepped onto the sidewalk.  


“You look really nice, Maki roll! I forgot to tell you that,” Kaito grinned.  


She pouted and raised her hand up to play with her long fishtail braid, “Thanks. You… I like your shirt.”  


“Isn’t it awesome? Leon lent it to me for today,” he looked down at the T-shirt, a red bowtie and white bib decorating the front to loosely resemble a tuxedo. With a faint smile, she wrapped her pinkie finger around his and continued walking toward the bus stop.  


Mikan subtly wiped her sweaty palms on her dress as Tenko held the door open for her, “Thank you very much.”  


“No problem,” she smiled and entered the parlor. A splash of pastel colors danced along the walls, and the clear scent of chocolate wafted through the air. Her smile fizzled away when she heard laughter in one of the booths nearby.  


“That was amazing!” Ibuki cheered, “Do it again! Do it again!”  


She pushed two cones of chocolate ice cream to her friends, who scarfed them down in several large bites. Akane licked a drop from her hand, while Imposter wiped at their mouth with a paper napkin.  


“So, who won that round?” the woman asked.  


“Oh, was I supposed to keep track of that?”  


Sucking in a deep breath, Tenko turned to Mikan and excused herself before pacing to the booth in the back of the parlor. Ibuki was the first to notice her presence, and leaped out of her seat to form a hug.  


“Hey, what a crazy coincidence!” she giggled, “Wanna join us over here?”  


The girl pulled away, “Actually, I already told Akane I was going to be here with Mikan, alone.”  


“Well, all that talk about ice cream made me hungry,” she held her hands up in defense, “Besides, I’m here with these guys, so it’s a totally different thing than chaperoning you two.”  


“Hi, Mikan!” Ibuki waved. At the counter, the nurse fumbled with a few small coins in surprise, causing them to bounce and roll off the metal surface.  


Ibuki slowly lowered her hand and winced, “Oops.”  


When Tenko ran off to help her date, Imposter turned to Akane with a frown, “So, you only invited us here to watch them?”  


“Well, when you say it like that, it sounds really mean,” she rubbed the back of her neck, “I probably shoulda told you. Sorry about that.”  


Her friend sighed, “It’s fine. I still got what I came here for.”  


“I wish you told ME sooner,” Ibuki crossed her arms with a pout, “I would’ve brought my binoculars.”  


Tenko stared at the waffle cone in her hands, “How did they run out of cups? I’ve never heard of an ice cream shop running out of cups.”  


“I’m sorry,” Mikan whimpered, “Can I do anything to-anything to help?”  


“No, it’s fine. I just don’t like how messy they get, and my mouth looks weird when I try to eat it without a spoon,” she flicked her tongue out and dragged it up the round scoop of mint chip, “It’s still really good.”  


The couple migrated to a small table by the door, where sunbeams phased through a glass window above.  


“Um,” she started, “may I ask… nevermind.”  


“You can ask me anything, Mikan.”  


“Well, I noticed that when you-when you saw Akane, you didn’t look… happy?”  


Tenko sighed, “We just had a fight today, but it’s no big deal. You don’t have to worry.”  


They ate in silence for a few moments, before the tension grew unbearable.  


Mikan gulped, swirling the ball of tan ice cream around with her plastic spoon, “Is it my fault?”  


“What? No way! I’ll forgive her by the end of the day, when she apologizes. We always work things out.”  


“Okay,” she mumbled. When she wasn’t looking, Tenko opened her mouth wide and sucked on the top of her treat. Slowly pulling her lips away, she savored the cold, minty flavor on her tongue until it warmed and melted into soft cream.  


“Oh!” Mikan yelped, fishing for a wet wipe from her purse. Leaning forward, she dabbed at a fresh stain on the girl’s black V-neck shirt.  


Tenko gently held her fingers still, “Thank you, but could I do it myself, actually?”  


From their booth, the others watched as Mikan stumbled over her words, and relented with an embarrassed nod. Tenko handed her cone to the nurse, and scrubbed at the wet mark on her chest.  


“My lil’ sis is stepping up to the plate,” Ibuki wiped at her eyes, “I’m so proud!”  


Mikan scooped a sample of her ice cream out of her cup, and held it up to her date, “Would you like to try it now?”  


“Yes, please!” she sang, before diving forward and wrapping her lips around the spoon. She pulled away and closed her eyes, swallowing the bittersweet dessert with a soft smile.  


“It tastes like something Maki or Peko might like, too. Like, it’s almost chocolate, but very different?”  


The woman giggled, “That’s one way to describe coffee, yes. I learned to love it after-after years of drinking it.”  


“We never had coffee in the temple,” Tenko took another lick of mint chip, “We drank a lot of tea, though. My favorite is ginger, with some honey added in.”  


“Oh, ginger tea is wonderful,” she brightened, “I always recommend it to patients-to patients who have colds.”  


“Boba tea is really good, too, but I don’t like the chewy balls at the bottom. They’re hard and soft at the same time, and sometimes I suck them up the straw too fast and almost choke.”  


“They have solid food inside?”  


“Yeah,” she nodded, “Have you never had it?”  


“I’m sorry, I’ve just been so busy, and trying new-and trying new things isn’t appealing to me. I’m sorry.”  


“No, no, I get it. People depend on you a lot, so you don’t have much free time. Maybe I can bring one to you at school soon. What kind of fruit favors do you like?”  


Once they were finished with their ice cream, the couple walked hand-in-hand back down the street. Through the school’s park, they passed Mukuro, who sat alone on a bench in front of a patch of roses.  


“Hi, Mukuro,” Tenko called. The girl turned and silently waved, her face expressionless, before returning to her notepad. They entered the 77th Class’ dormitory, where they saw Chiaki, Nagito, Peko and Fuyuhiko in the common room.  


“STOP FUCKIN’ CHEATING!”  


“Fuyuhiko, I promise, I haven’t cheated this entire time.”  


“YOU’RE DOING IT RIGHT NOW!”  


Mikan crept down the hall toward her room, Tenko following close behind, until she stopped at her door.  


“Um, thank you,” she said, “I had a lovely time today.”  


“Me, too,” Tenko rubbed the pad of her finger over the wide bandage, “I’d love to do this again, sometime.”  


“Really?” her eyebrows flew up. Wordlessly, the girl pressed a quick peck to her cheek, and smiled.  


When Tenko arrived at her own room, Akane was sitting beside her door.  


“Hey.”  


“Hey,” she lowered herself to the floor.  


“Seemed good back there.”  


“It was.”  


Akane nodded, “Good, good. Listen, uh, I’m sorry for being an ass earlier. That slap just came outta nowhere.”  


“We both went a little crazy, huh?”  


She laughed, “Yeah. And, you know, if you wanna keep seeing her, I can step back.”  


Tenko leaned her head on her friend’s shoulder, “Thank you-”  


“But if she pulls that shit one more time, I’m going to dropkick her.”


	31. Chapter 31

“Alright, class,” Great Gozu began, “Today, I’m going to start by explaining ionic bonds, then we’ll move to covalent bonds. Does anyone already know what an ionic bond is? Oh, uh, Miu?”  


The girl lowered her hand, “It’s the sharing of electrons between oppositely charged ions.”  


“That’s right,” he nodded, “Good job, Miu. I’m glad to see you participate.”  


“Hehe, if you want to see participation, I’ll give you some great goddamn participation!” she shot out of her chair with a grin, walked up to the front of the room and held out her hand, until he dropped his stick of chalk into her palm.  


Rantaro swivelled around to face Kiibo, “I’m guessing it went well yesterday?”  


“Yeah, they hit it off right away,” he whispered, “Miu actually called him ‘Pops’ before we left.”  


“Better than Gramps, I guess,” the boy shrugged.  


“Except he insisted she call him ‘Professor Pops’ from now on,” Kiibo muffled a laugh.  


“But with covalent bonds, you see, the electrons passed between atoms are shared equally,” she drew a diagram on the chalkboard, with two overlapping circles, “An example of this is carbon monoxide, or ‘CO’. It’s connected by a triple bond of two regular covalent bonds, and one davent covalent bond.”  


“Yes!” Great Gozu clapped, “Everyone, take notes.”  


“A dative covalent bond is when two electrons that derive from the same atom are shared. For carbon monoxide, two carbon and four oxygen electrons are involved in the bond.”  


“Yes!”  


“Polar covalent bonding is the unequal distribution of two electrons among a pair of atoms. Water molecules, or dihydrogen monoxide, bond by the pulling of hydrogen electrons toward an oxygen atom, due to its partially negative charge.”  


“CORRECT!” the man bellowed, slamming his elbow into the podium before it splintered, “Nice work!”  


“Fuck yeah!” Miu tossed the piece of chalk over her shoulder and puffed out her chest, “I’m so fucking awesome!”  


When she sat back down at her desk, Kiibo leaned over and whispered, “I always seem to forget just how amazing you are.”  


Her smile quickly faded, her cheeks dusted a deep pink, “Uh, well, you-you shouldn’t… do that. I mean, forget. Don’t forget I’m, um…”  


“Alright,” Great Gozu rubbed his hands together, “let’s continue the lesson. Now, where was I?”  


After a collective three and a half hours of chemistry, English, and history, the bell rang for lunch. Mondo, who had returned to Hope’s Peak that morning, pulled Kiyotaka out of the cafeteria and ran down the hall, towards his research lab. Near the window, Sonia and Gundham listened to a screamo song that leaked through the pair of earbuds they shared. Meanwhile, Peko calmly ate beside them, slivers of black foam sticking out of her ears. At his table, Shuichi sat to Kaede’s left and craned his neck for a closer look at the pink envelope in her hands. He swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry as he struggled to compose himself.  


“What’s that?” he asked.  


She turned it over, and to his horror, a sticker in the shape of a small, red heart held its flap closed, “I found it in my backpack during class. It has to be a love letter!”  
Across from her, Tsumugi leaned forward, “Are you going to open it here?”  


“I don’t know,” she shrugged, her eyes glued to the heart, “I just can’t believe someone likes me this way.”  


“What? But you’re awesome!” Kaito slammed the end of his spoon onto the table. To his right, Maki swiftly caught his glass before it could tip over as she continued eating.  


Kaede laughed, “Thanks, but I guess I felt a little… self-conscious, after a lot of you guys started dating.”  


“I’m not-I’m not dating anyone!” Shuichi yelled, before cringing at the shrill voice crack that followed his stutter.  


“Oh, I know, Shuichi,” she smiled at him, “I didn’t mean to make it sound like being single is a bad thing, I’m just really lonely, is all.”  


“Oh my Atua, just open it already,” a voice hissed from under the table. She quickly scooted her chair back and looked down, where Kokichi had seated himself among the crowd of legs.  


Breathing a sigh of relief, Kaede frowned, “What are you doing down there? Did you make this as a prank?”  


“Hey, I don’t prank you anymore after you became class rep,” he crawled out on his hands and knees, before leaping to his feet.  


“That’s not even remotely true, and you know it,” she dragged her chair forward again, “Now I’m definitely waiting until I get to my room.”  


The boy draped his arms around her shoulders from behind, “Aww, come on, Kaede. I promise it’s not from me. There’s no way I’d make something so gross and tacky, even as a joke!”  


“I believe him,” Shuichi nodded, his eyes wide, “Maybe you should open it in front of trusted friends, in case, I don’t know, it’s not what you hoped?”  


She pursed her lips and hummed, before turning back to him with a bright smile, “That’s a great idea!”  


As he opened his mouth to respond, Kaede swiveled her head away, her golden locks flying just out of reach of his face, “Maki, can you come over tonight?”  


“Why me?” the girl quirked an eyebrow.  


“You’re the best at keeping secrets that I know,” she clasped her hands together, “Please?”  


“Okay, fine,” Maki huffed.  


Kokichi circled back to his seat at the end of the table, across from Kirumi, “That was pretty fun.”  


“You sound as though you intended for that to happen,” she said.  


“What?” he gasped, a hand to his chest, “And why would I ever conceive of such a thing? What would I get out of it?”  


“If I told you, you would simply deny it.”  


“Well, that means whatever you thought of is stupid and shouldn’t ever be said in the first place.”  


She smiled faintly, and drew her cup to her lips, “I suppose you’re right.”  


Back in class, Great Gozu scribbled equations on the chalkboard and pointed to random students to solve them. Between Himiko’s unintelligible handwriting and Ryoma’s height disadvantage that forced him to stand on a stool in front of the board, Kaito wrote his answer in large, bold strokes that covered the entire space he was given. He spun on his heel and put his hands on his hips with a wide grin.  


“Good work, you three,” Great Gozu clicked his pen and scrawled on his clipboard, “I like the enthusiasm, Kaito.”  


As the boy returned to his desk, Kokichi leaned over, “I always seem to forget how you’re actually pretty good at math.”  


“Thanks, man!” he turned to face the front of the room before he blinked, and looked back, “Wait, what’s that supposed to mean?”  


“Nothing~” he sang. When the final bell rang, Kaede slid out of her seat and grabbed the pair of large erasers, before rapidly clapping them over the open window. She smacked them back onto the wooden ledge below the chalkboard, and rushed to the trash bin that sat in the corner of the room.  


“Whoa! Easy there,” her teacher placed a thick, calloused hand on her small shoulder, “What’s the rush, Kaede?”  


“Ah, sorry, Mr. Gozu,” she smiled up at him nervously, “I just have something planned today that I’m really excited for.”  


He hummed, “I understand. Even in such a prestigious school, you’re all still teenagers. I remember my time as a student here…”  


As he trailed off, she fiddled with the straps of her backpack, thinking back to the pale pink envelope sandwiched between her history and math notebooks. Who could have had the opportunity to slip it into her bag before class? Not just that, but who would have wanted to give her a love letter in the first place?  


“But that’s enough about me,” Great Gozu’s voice broke through her thoughts, “I’ll let you finish up around here, so you can go out and have some fun.”  


“Oh! Um, thank you, Mr. Gozu,” she bowed to him, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”  


Once the man left, she grabbed the trash bin and carried it down the hall, to the school’s incinerator that sat behind a tall, metal fence. She fished out a silver key from her pocket, and shoved it into the padlock hanging from the gate. Dumping the pile of pencil shavings and empty food wrappers into the soot-coated furnace, she closed the iron door and hit a large red button before snapping the lock back in place.  


Outside of her dorm room, Maki crossed her arms with a glare, “No.”  


“Please, Maki?” Shuichi pleaded, “You don’t even have to give me a name, just something to let me know who it is.”  


“I haven’t even read the letter, and you’re asking me to share private information so you can creep around someone who actually told Kaede how they feel?”  


The boy stood in silence, his eyes wide in shock, “I…”  


“If you want to know what’s written on it, you have to talk to her about it. Leave me out of this.”  


“But then, why did you agree to help her at lunch?”  


She glanced at the common room behind him, scanning for other classmates in earshot, then leaned in close, “I know how she tries really hard to get me to like her. She wants us to be friends, and even though it can be really annoying, I don’t want her to give up on that.”  


Shuichi blinked hard, “So, you want to be worth the effort of befriending, after people being afraid of you for so long.”  


“Is there a problem with that?” her nose crinkled as her expression darkened.  


“No, not at all!” he put his hands up toward his chest in surrender, “I won’t tell anyone.”  


“Good, because you know that if you do-”  


Suddenly, the entrance door scraped against the carpet below, and Kaede, out of breath, stumbled through. She locked eyes with Shuichi, and smiled brightly.  


“Oh, hey, Shuichi!” she walked over,  


He tugged on the bill of his cap and waved weakly, “Hi, Kaede.”  


The girl turned her attention to Maki, “I’m so excited to finally read this! Are you ready?”  


With a final glance to Shuichi, she sighed, “Yeah, sure.”  


She swung her door open and led Kaede inside, before shutting and locking it behind her. From the other side, Shuichi stood, alone.


	32. Chapter 32

“Okay, let’s open it up!” she strolled over to the girl’s bed and gently sat atop the burgundy comforter that stretched over her mattress. Digging her thumb under the pink flap, she ripped the sticker in half and carefully pulled out a folded piece of lined paper. Maki quickly joined her side and studied the tidy strokes that covered a third of the page.  


“I don’t recognize this handwriting,” she said.  


“Me neither,” Kaede began to read, “‘I’ve been watching you from afar, and guided by your tune of eighty-eight stars…’”  


“Why eighty-eight?”  


She smiled, “A piano has eighty-eight keys, so they must be talking about my playing!”  


“They’re not a very good poet, but at least they have some creativity, I guess,” Maki leaned back to rest on her elbows.  


“‘Your smile gleams as bright as your eyes, your hair a glowing ray of sunshine,’” she continued, “‘I will await with bated breath under the night sky, to meet you by the bed of roses with a special surprise.’”  


The girl bit her cheek, “It might be the park near the second-years’ dorms.”  


“Yeah, there are a few rose bushes clumped together, if I’m remembering it correctly,” Kaede looked up from the paper, “You won’t tell anyone about this, right?”  


“You came to me because you already know I wouldn’t, didn’t you?”  


She nodded, “That’s true… I just don’t want the others to interfere. You know how some of them can get.”  


“Like when Tenko flipped Shuichi on the first day of school for sitting next to you, or when Kokichi tried to trick everyone into confessing to their crushes by sending us all anonymous gifts?”  


“Oh, I completely forgot about that!” she giggled, “You didn’t come to class for a week, and it took you even longer to talk to Kaito again!”  


Maki pouted, but quickly recovered from her embarrassment, “You were right to doubt him earlier, by the way. This could still be some kind of elaborate prank.”  


“I know, but… he’s been so depressed lately. I wish he could let me in and help him.”  


“Some people don’t like the vulnerability of sharing their emotions,” she smoothed down a lock of brown hair from the side of her face, “it ends up making them feel worse.”  


“But it’s unhealthy.”  


“It is, but forcing him to talk to you without that trust will only make him hate you.”  


Kaede sighed, “So, there’s nothing I can do?”  


After a short pause, she said, “Just wait.”  


Back in the school, Mikan gently held the diaphragm of her stethoscope to Nagito’s back, the man’s shirt and blazer folded in a neat stack on the cot beside him. Kokichi spun in the nurse’s chair behind her counter, pushing against the wall to increase his speed. Tenko watched in awe as Kokichi swung his yoyo over his other hand until it landed on top of the string he held taut, spinning wildly in place.  


“One more time. Breathe in,” she requested, his chest expanding until an outline of his ribcage appeared, “and breathe out.”  


Kokichi turned his attention away from the toy, “How is he, doc?”  


“Oh, please don’t-please don’t call me a doctor. I’m just a nurse.”  


“I know, I just wanted to say that once in my life,” he walked over to his friend, “But seriously, is he gonna need surgery or something?”  


“No, nothing like that. His lymphoma has already been declared benign last year, but, um, his swollen lymph nodes do carry the chronic symptoms. Right now, it just looks like a fever and fatigue.”  


Nagito lifted his clean white dress shirt off the bed, unraveling it to slide his arms through the sleeves before thanking the woman with a raspy voice.  


“Of course,” she nodded with a small smile, “But, I recommend taking some-taking some ibuprofen for your fever. And please come to me right away if you feel worse.”  


“Aww, even for a useless disgrace of an Ultimate like me, you care about my wellbeing,” tears welled in his eyes.  


“Well, you’re my friend, and I, um, think you’re really nice.”  


“You are so kind! Almost an angel from God, I would say.”  


Kokichi scratched the side of his nose, “Eh, you’re alright-OW! I was joking!”  


“You better have,” Tenko pulled her elbow back from jabbing his rib.  


Nagito looked between the girls, “I’m guessing things have worked out with you two, huh?”  


“Oh, I think, um, maybe,” the nurse averted her gaze, her shoulders hunched, “I’ve been doing my best.”  


Tenko nodded, “Everything’s okay now, don’t worry.”  


“That’s good. We’ll leave you girls alone, then,” he pocketed the bag of painkillers and walked out of the room with a wave, Kokichi following close behind, “See you tomorrow.”  


Once the door closed shut, Tenko breathed a sigh of relief, “Finally.”  


“Um,” Mikan squeaked behind her, “Let’s keep-Maybe we should keep the door open?”  


“Eh? How come?”  


“Just so that… you know, people won’t be worried.”  


She furrowed her brows, “Okay, if you’d feel more comfortable.”  


“So,” Kokichi turned to him, “you think she’s not dangerous anymore?”  


“She’s always been dangerous, but this shift in her attitude might work in our favor. We just need to keep her sanity in check.”  


“You seem to know her pretty well.”  


Nagito laughed, “Yeah, I guess that’s what happens when you spend two years in the same class.”  


Kaede ambled along the footpath until a cluster of deep red roses came into view, her pale pink lip gloss shimmering in the light of a lamp post as her mouth stretched into a wide smile. She reached the wooden bench, a bronze plaque of Hope’s Peak’s founder scrawled on the back, and sat on the edge with her purse on her lap. Closing her eyes, she listened to crickets chirping at her feet, and felt a cool gust of wind blow through her hair. The girl leaned back with a quiet sigh before a hand clamped over her mouth and nose from behind, sleek leather rubbing against her skin as she struggled to scream. Her legs kicked out, and her arms flew to swipe at her attacker, until another hand grabbed her wrists. Her lungs beginning to ache, she jerked her head from side to side in a futile attempt to escape her capture.  


“I’m sorry,” Mukuro whispered to her, “but I need you to go to sleep now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uuugh, online classes are kicking my butt!!


	33. Chapter 33

“Oh my God,” Sayaka tugged at her hair, “This is all my fault. I shouldn’t have left him alone when he wasn’t feeling well. What are we gonna do? Are the police going to help us with this? Will they even believe us?”  


Kyoko silently watched her classmate pace across the floor of her research lab, before turning back to the corkboard covered in a web of red string. Makoto Naegi went missing from his dorm room between eight o’clock the night before and six fifteen that morning.  


“As it has barely passed eleven hours at the most, they may take the situation lightly.”  


“But Komaru was JUST kidnapped!” her voice cracked, “What if... What if we tell them about the Steering Committee?”  


“No, we have no idea who is a part of that group. After the hotel manager was found dead in his cell, I suspected one of the officers, and we can’t determine if there is only one mole to begin with.”  


“So, what does that mean?”  


“It means we’re very limited in resources if we plan to search for Makoto. No tips from investigations outside of the student body, and no back-up like we had last time. We’ll need more people to help, but we have to be cautious and keep the details of his disappearance from the rest of the student body.”  


“Okay. How do we explain his absence, though?”  


Kyoko walked toward the door, “I have an idea, but I need to know how good you are at acting.”  


In the classroom, Mr. Shingetsu looked up from the pink slip of paper to the girls, “Well, I suppose you aren’t lying. Or at least, you’re desperate enough to forge a sick note from the nurse’s office so Makoto could skip my lessons.”  


“No, sir,” Sayaka shook her head, “He’s had a terrible head cold since last night.”  


“Fine, fine, just take your seats,” he waved them away with a sigh, “Alright, class, we will continue ‘Snow Country’ by Yasunari Kawabata. Miss Ikusaba, please read the first page of part two aloud.”  


The girl’s wearisome tone as she recited each word pushed Sayaka’s mind to wander. When she had left her boyfriend for the evening, he appeared optimistic despite a high fever, and insisted that she spend the night in her own room. The empty bed and open window she had later found twisted her stomach in knots that made hot, rancid bile rise up her throat. Among her frantic thoughts, she ran to Kyoko’s room around the corner, who offered her a glass of water and ushered her into her lab after their classmates went to the cafeteria for breakfast. Perhaps this was how Makoto had felt when Komaru disappeared--angry, helpless, and scared  


“Miss Maizono!” her eyes shot up to see Mr. Shingetsu standing in front of her desk, “I would highly appreciate it if you listened to me. It is your turn to read aloud.”  


“Right, sorry,” she looked down at the beginning of the chapter, “Um…”  


A quiet cough to her left drew her attention to Chihiro, who held up his book and pointed to the top of page sixty-seven. She offered a weak smile and flipped to the same spot, before she began speaking. Eventually, they moved onto Byakuya and, to Sayaka, classic literature merged with world history until she found herself in the middle of a biology lesson. The pit in her stomach grew into a dull ache, and she clenched her abs to ease the pain. The lunch bell chimed like a fire alarm, startling her out of her trance.  


“Come on, Sayaka!” Aoi pulled at her hand, “I overheard Akane mention this morning that Teruteru is gonna be making pizza!”  


She spotted Kyoko exiting the room behind her friends, and rose to her feet, “Um, that sounds really good, but I just need to talk to someone right now. I’ll meet you in the cafeteria in a minute!”  


Rushing down the hallway, she caught up to the girl, “Have you thought of anything?”  


“Actually, yes, and I was just about to tell Shuichi,” she gestured to the boy in front of her, his arms wrapped around his body and cap tilted over his eyes.  


“What’s wrong?”  


He lifted his head, his face twisted in heartache, “Kaede received a love letter yesterday, and…”  


In the cafeteria, Maki bounced her leg under the table as she drowned out the conversations swirling around her. A flash of red drew her attention to Himiko sitting across from her, her head lolled forward with her hair splayed out over her plate of food.  


“Not again,” Tenko groaned, before shaking her friend’s shoulder, “Come on, Himiko, wake up.”  


“But the pizza’s so soft,” she mumbled.  


Maki glanced back to her own untouched slice and grimaced. She should have told Shuichi about the meeting with Kaede’s secret admirer last night. No, she should have gone with her.  


“It sucks that Kaede’s stuck in bed, she’d love this,” Rantaro said sympathetically.  


To her left, Kaito stood with a cheesy grin as he piled food onto a plate, “Don’t worry, I’ll take it to her!”  


“No, I’ll do it,” rising to her feet, she snatched the plate out of his hand and spun on her heel. Shuichi hadn’t come into the cafeteria yet, so hopefully he’s already let the other detective know of their classmate’s disappearance. The disappearance that she could have prevented, if she was smarter. If she cared more. Does she even care enough?  


“So, we shouldn’t call the police, after they helped us so much when Komaru was abducted?” her friend’s voice startled her out of the wandering thoughts consuming her consciousness, and she whirled her head to a closed door she recognized led to Kyoko Kirigiri’s research lab.  


Kyoko closed her eyes, “Imposter is right. Because they know I am personally close to both the missing individuals and potential crime scene, they’d only pass this onto me, and word might spread to the media. If that happens…”  


“Then the person who took them could throw us off the trail they see us following,” Shuichi groaned, his words muffled in his palms.  


The girl nodded, before rising from her seat, “In any case, we need to keep this under control as much as possible. Sayaka was clearly the last person to see Makoto, since he was taken from his dorm room. Shuichi, you said that Kaede went to Maki’s room yesterday because of a note?”  


“Yeah, it looked like a love letter, but it could have been a trap instead.”  


“We’ll need to fill her in on the news, and see what was written,” she turned to her upperclassman, “I know that you found Chiaki’s phone in the bushes, but after I looked through it, I noticed that she had contacted Nagito at eight thirteen last night. Can you bring him to me?”  


“Of course. But, how should we explain their absences to the rest of the school?”  


“The details of their disappearances should be hidden, in case a student is directly involved.”  


“I can’t imagine any of our classmates behind this,” Sayaka drew her arms toward her chest.  


“Maybe it wasn’t,” Shuichi murmured, “there’s still that group we know next to nothing about.”  


“‘Group’? What ‘group’?”  


Swiveling his head toward the door, he spotted Maki leaning against the frame. She straightened, her gaze flickering up to Kyoko, and walked toward the corkboard.  


She pointed to a yellow sticky note pressed over an article, “‘Steering Committee. Who is that?”  


“An organization that I believe is responsible for most, if not all, of the unfortunate events the school’s student body has endured this year,” she joins the girl at her side, “The affected people over the course of these past few months are Byakuya Togami, Makoto Naegi, Hajime Hinata, Sonia Nevermind, Tenko Chabashira, and now presumably Kaede Akamatsu and Chiaki Nanami.”  


Maki scanned the wall of clipped newspapers, “Missing loved ones, assassinations, and framing an influential conglomerate for money laundering. What else?”  


Before anyone could answer, however, the intercom above crackled to life.


	34. Chapter 34

The static overhead caused a hush to fall over the cafeteria, before an uproar of frantic voices grew more clear from the speakers.  


Among the panic, the Headmaster shouted, “Hope’s Peak is evacuating! Students, please exit the school building in an orderly fashion, and wait for further instruction by your teachers in the designated emergency areas!”  


Sayaka looked to Kyoko, “What’s happening?”  


“I’m not quite sure, but the authorities will likely be involved, perhaps even already here given the short distance from the station.”  


From their corner, Imposter quirked an eyebrow, “So, you don’t intend to leave during an emergency evacuation.”  


“I don’t intend to be where we’re told,” she cracked the door open and peered into the hallway, “I have a hunch.”  


While several upperclassmen left the cafeteria, Gonta shot out of his seat, “Gentlemen’s and Ladies’ Club, go!”  


Together, Kaito and Angie grabbed the closest person to them, those being Ryoma and Himiko respectively. While their friends were lifted easily and carried out of the room, Tsumugi grabbed Kirumi’s hand and led her away. Korekiyo pulled out a small notepad and pen, and scribbled a passage of his observations before Rantaro gently nudged him to start moving.  


Meanwhile, Gonta tossed Miu over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and scooped Kokichi under his other arm.  


“What the fuck?! Put me down, you hairy apeman!” the girl pounded her fists against his back, “I can walk on my own, dumbass!”  


“But gentlemen must help others,” he declared as he jogged through the hall, Kiibo following close behind with Tenko. Outside, the group rejoined their classmates onto the track field, where several faculty members were speaking with police, or divided their classes and counted heads.  


Ms. Yukizome looked around, her brows furrowed, and turned to the men beside her, “We’re all missing a few students.”  


“You’re right,” Great Gozu sighed behind his mask, “I’ll go back in and-”  


His next words were stifled by a sudden explosion that engulfed the school in a blazing ball of fire, debris of shattered glass and burning wooden planks flying through the air in all directions.  


“Maki!” Kaito screamed and began sprinting toward the destruction, but Sakura quickly caught up and held him back by his elbows.  


“No, Kaito, it’s way too dangerous.”  


“I don’t care, my friends are still in there! My girlfriend is-! Let go of me!”  


He writhed in her grasp, gritting his teeth and shaking his feet to jerk forward with little success. Nearby, Ibuki stood in stunned silence beside a worried Mahiru and Hiyoko, looking up at the plumes of smoke with a vacant stare. Kiyotaka and Mondo tried to console Chihiro, who hid his teary eyes in his hands and fell to his knees.  


“I’m sorry, Angie,” Himiko wrapped her friend’s arm in a tight embrace, “You worked really hard on all of those paintings.”  


With a nod, her mouth stretched in a wide smile, but her lips wobbled and her eyes watered, “That’s okay~ There’s always… There’s always…”  


As the school’s ruins and following outbursts held most of his classmates' attention, Kokichi shuffled away towards the dormitories. He had planned on sneaking out of class to visit Kaede’s room, and while the opportunity presenting itself was less than ideal, he may not have another chance to confirm his suspicions. Maki’s behavior was just... unusual, especially after Kaede had chosen her to share that mysterious love note. She didn’t even consider Shuichi. And he wasn’t outside when the school was detonated.  


His stride faltered, before immediately falling back into the rhythm on the pavement, “Shuichi, you idiot.”  
After a few more steps, he heard a quiet ‘snap’ of a twig behind him. The boy whirled around, and caught sight of the dull sheen in a pair of leather gloves. It crashed into his mouth and nose, like an open-handed slap, and slim fingers clamped around his cheeks while another hand gripped his hair at the back of his head. He clawed at the arm in front of him, struggling desperately to pry the cloth from his face before he could no longer hold his breath, but a swift kick made his knees buckle, and he crumpled to the ground.  


“I’m sorry,” a girl’s voice murmured above him, “But I need you to-”  


“HIYAH!”  


Something heavy must have slammed into her, because her arms ripped away from Kokichi and allowed him to suck in a deep breath. He turned, and watched as Tenko pinned Junko’s sister down, until she rocked the girl off-balance and threw a punch. Tenko rolled onto her feet and leapt up to pose in a stance he vaguely recognized, her body crouched low and hands curled to resemble claws.  


“Please, don’t make this more difficult,” Mukuro sighed. She looked so tired, even when she pulled a thick dagger from inside one of her boots.  


“Kokichi, run!”  


“But-”  


“Just do it!” she yelled, and charged forward. The older girl swiped at her chest, but was countered with a palm strike to the elbow. Her wrist flicked to the left, and the knife twirled until the blade pointed downward before she swung her arm once more, grazing the sleeve of Tenko’s blazer.  


“I said to run, Kokichi!” she snapped, “Men really just don’t listen, do they?”  


“Alright, fine!” with a final glance toward his attacker, her focus eerily locked onto her new target, he dashed down the path and threw himself against the door. His adrenaline rush drove him up the girls’ staircase to find Kaede’s room.  


He pounded his fist against the door, jiggling the knob with his other hand, “Kaede?! Kaede, are you there?!”  


Not a second was wasted waiting before Kokichi grabbed the couple of lock picks from his pocket and knelt in front of the doorknob. It was an easy job, and the moment he heard it click, he swung the door open to see her bed made, yet empty. Her bathroom was the same--tidy like the responsible student that occupied its space, while absent of the girl herself. He stumbled to her bed and perched atop the comforter, looking down at his hands to will them from shaking anymore as his mind raced of the past few days.  


Kaede received a letter and Maki read it. There must have been instructions of a meeting place, in which Kaede went alone. Otherwise, Maki would either also be missing, or show signs of injury in the case of an abduction. She clearly didn’t take part in writing the note, since her only motive to hurt her classmate, and Kaede no less, would be if she was still associated with that cult of assassins. But she wouldn’t be stupid enough to set up a blind date and allow her target the opportunity to read it in front of so many witnesses at the cafeteria; not to mention the odd reaction earlier today, taking the responsibility of delivering lunch. But someone with skills similar to Maki’s would be able to slip a note into a backpack, unnoticed. Someone like the Ultimate Soldier. A soldier whose psychopathic sister had recently stopped coming to a school before it blew up.  


“So, it wasn’t a personal attack on me just now, it was because I was coming here at an inconvenient time,” Kokichi chewed at the side of his thumb nail, gnawing at the brittle plate until it snapped between his incisors. Kaede has to still be alive. Now, he just needs to find her until that changes.  


Inside the abandoned facility, Kyoko led her friends down another flight of stairs. A fluorescent light flickered and buzzed overhead, while gaps of darkness paved the corridor before them.  


“Oh my God, oh my God,” Sayaka whispered behind her fingers, “Please be right, Kyoko, I-I can’t-”  


“Sayaka. You need to calm down.”  


“But-”  


She reached out and grasped the girl’s hand, “I don’t fully comprehend this highly accurate intuition that you possess, but I promise I’ll do everything in my power to find them.”  


“Kyoko,” the group paused, the pitiful crack in her voice echoing in their ears, “I feel… someone’s going to die soon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are coming together... 
> 
> :)


	35. Heartfelt Confessions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the most violence I've ever written in this story so far, so just a head's up.

Mukuro skidded across the same rough patch of dirt as she was thrown again, the skin of her legs scraped with specks of blood budding from beneath the nasty wounds. From a short distance, Tenko’s howls of pain reached her ears and she looked up to see the girl drop to her knees, clutching her arm in a tight grip while a thick, red stream tickled down to her wrist. After what felt like hours, their fight had finally crested.  


“Junko finds many people boring, you know,” she drawled, wondering if her words could be heard over her opponent’s cries, “But there is always something she finds entertaining in them. It could be their talent, or a phobia, or maybe an exploitative trait.”  


Tenko gasped for air and watched her rise to her feet--almost robotically, “What are you... talking about?!”  


“I thought you’d be interested to know, especially regarding Mikan.”  


A sudden wave of anger bubbled in her chest at the sound of her partner’s name, pulling her to stand on shaky legs and charge once more. The knife in Mukuro’s hand, stained with a fresh coat of blood, flicked out to slash at her neck before she arched her back and sent a sharp kick to the young woman’s side. Her leg was blocked by a free hand, as was the immediate palm strike toward her shoulder with the other forearm, until Tenko pivoted her foot and spun her body to land a hit on Mukuro’s wrist that caused her to drop the weapon.  


“DON’T TALK ABOUT HER!”  


She responded in kind with several punches to her jaw and collarbone, Tenko blocking two but the final blow to her nose left her in a daze as another part of her body throbbed. She stumbled back, feeling the familiar pressure of tears form behind her eyes, when Mukuro gave her a single shove that made her land hard on the ground.  


“I was simply going to say that my sister liked her obsessive need to please, and grew more interested from there, because of Mikan’s desire for control.”  


“Stop it,” she rubbed the torn edge of her sleeve under her nose, “Don’t talk like you know anything about her.”  


The girl knelt in front of Tenko, her blank expression showing the dull gleam in her eyes, “I know how she tried to keep you in her room like a pet, just as she did last year.”  


“‘Last-Last year?’”  


Mukuro pressed a hand on her chest, pushing her body lower until she lied flat on the grass, “We're a lot alike in that sense, she and I. We both would do anything for the person we love most. And you, too, for forgiving a monster so easily.”  


“She’s not-”  


“Do you know why she enjoys being the school nurse?”  


Tenko wriggled under her weight, flailing her arms weakly at her enemy as they were easily brushed aside, “Because she likes to help people!”  


Mukuro blinked, unfazed, “You truly believe that, don’t you?”  


She growled, and drew her legs up to kick at her stomach with every ounce of strength she could muster. The force sent Mukuro to flop onto her back, before she pushed up to stand with little trouble.  


“Did you know that we watched you in the dojo during your third week at Hope’s Peak? I can tell that your skills have improved over the past few months.”  


The girl sat up and leaned on one knee, a tear rolling down the rim of a welt on her cheek. She watched her attacker retrieve the knife from a mound of dirt, and braced herself for the inevitable bite of the blade seep into her flesh as the woman approached.  


“You’re not like most martial artists--stoic, calm, quiet. You’re emotional and immature, like a child. And your pain tolerance levels are so low, yet you still possess the talent of an Aikido master. Your teacher would have been proud.”  


The sentiment made her heart plummet, the burning fire that pushed her to fight back having extinguished completely. Was Master really, really gone? Was she next, now, to die scared, injured and alone? She squeezed her eyes shut, the soft crunch of Mukuro’s footsteps growing louder and her breathing raced until she felt a cold hand wrap around her jaw to lift her head. She squinted, and through her blurry vision, she could make out the other girl’s face staring back.  


“I will give you a chance to show the world your true strength,” a sudden spike of sharp pain pierced through her abdomen, familiar to the numbing throb in her arm, “Your tenacity.”  


The acidic sting of bile rose in her throat as she slumped forward, Mukuro sliding her knife out of her stomach and guiding her body to lie in a heap on the ground. She opened her mouth, but only a puddle of yellow drool spilled out with a quiet gurgle.  


“The cut is deep, but I believe you’ll survive,” the girl stepped over her body and stalked off, leaving Tenko to curl into herself while she pressed her arms against the gash in a feeble attempt to stop the blood flow. A minute must have passed before she heard screams from a distance, as well as several voices calling her name.  


“She’s over here!”  


“Tenko!”  


“What happened?!”  


“TENKO!”  


That last voice sounded like...  


At the scene of the explosion, Hiyoko sat on the curb of the staff parking lot and watched the flames fizzle out under the streams of hose water. Beside her, with her knees tucked under her chin, Ibuki waited in silence for Akane to return, as she and Sakura left in search for Tenko. Kokichi was missing as well, but Nagito had volunteered to look for him alone, even turning down Rantaro’s offer to join him.  


“Three more bodies were found under the rubble,” an officer recounted, “They haven’t been identified, so we can’t say for certain whether any were in your classes. One of them looked to be a faculty member, however.”  


“Oh my God,” Ms. Yukizome clasped her hands over her mouth, her eyes wide in horror.  


During the discourse, Hiyoko turned her attention to her classmate, Mikan, who busied herself with assisting paramedics in wrapping one of the student council members in bandages. The woman looked so focused, despite the madness around them, and the sight provided a degree of comfort to her.  


“I’m back,” Mahiru walked up to the pair, a bottle of water in each hand before holding one out to Hiyoko, “What did I miss? Has she said anything, yet?”  


“No, but Nagito went off somewhere because of Kokichi.”  


“Seriously?” she sighed and squeezed herself into the space between her friends, “I understand that those two are close, but he’s been pushing his luck with his health way too much lately.”  


She then looked at Ibuki, “Do you want some water?”  


Wordlessly, she shook her head and hugged her legs closer to her chest.  


“Hey,” Mahiru threw an arm around her, “I’m sure they’re safe, along with Chiaki and the others, okay?”  


Nearby, a paramedic ran to the officer speaking with the teachers, “Sir, we have another issue here.”  


“Is it another bomb?”  


“No,” she swallowed, “Some of the victims we found have sustained injuries that weren't caused by this. There are clean lesions that looked to be from a bladed weapon.”  


“What?!” Great Gozu looked between her and the policeman, “What does that mean? What are you saying?!”  


“She’s saying there’s someone running around, killing people,” Byakuya stepped forward and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, “I think we can all figure out who is capable of pulling off such a depraved idea, but you catching and arresting her, I highly doubt.”  


The officer narrowed his eyes, “And may I ask why, young man?”  


“Only because your department has failed every time since last year, regarding Junko Enoshima.”  


There was a beat of silence, quickly followed by the wails of an ambulance careening down the street. Inside, Ryuuji watched his student as her chest rose and fell in rhythm with a monitor sitting in the corner of the vehicle. Akane sat opposite from him, her jaw set and arms crossed while they listened to the sharp beeping of Tenko’s steady heart rate.


	36. Finding Kaede

Despite Sayaka’s warning, they continued following Kyoko around another corner, and found themselves stuck at a dead end, the hallway blocked by a pair of double doors locked with a thick chain wrapped around its handles. Shuichi and Maki began opening the doors that lined the walls on either side of them, while Kyoko inspected the lock on the chain.  


“It seems that we should look for a key.”  


Behind her, Imposter huffed out a sigh, “I don’t want to be the one to say it, but this all could just be a waste of time. Are you sure Chiaki, Makoto and Kaede are here?”  


“No, but this is my strongest suspicion, as it’s both close to the academy while out of the way to avoid students finding them by coincidence, and it follows a pattern with the hotel that Komaru was held in.”  


Shuichi turned to look back at her and nodded, “Multiple floors of rooms.”  


“I see,” they scratched their chin, “I suppose you also know Junko better than myself, as you’re in her class.”  


“I don’t believe even I know Junko well enough to predict her actions,” she said, walking to the closest door and creaking it open. From the sliver of light, she could see a handle grip dangling on a thick rope in the center of the room. She waved her friends over, and Maki reached up to grab it, but once she yanked on the cord, a muffled yelp and cough sounded from behind the far wall. In an instant, the room was lit up to reveal Kaede behind a glass panel, standing shakily atop a wooden stool with a metal collar around her neck and her hands hidden behind her back. The fear was apparent in her expression, even with her eyes obstructed by a strip of cloth.  


“Kaede!” Shuichi rushed over, rapping on the glass, “Can you hear me, Kaede?!”  


“Shu-Shuichi?” she squeaked, “Is that really you this time, for real?”  


An airy chuckle rumbled from above, followed by the boy’s voice, “Ah, you’re too much sometimes, Kaede.”  


“What the hell?” Maki muttered.  


“Hey, don’t lose focus this time!” Sayaka cheered through another speaker, “Just keep your legs steady, and don’t look down. That’s it!”  


Imposter pointed to the assemblage of monitors hanging around the girl’s head, “It looks familiar to when the underclassmen girls talked about Mikan, and their conversation was edited.”  


“So, Junko recorded our stage performance lessons from weeks ago, to do THIS?!” Sayaka’s eyes bulged and her mouth hung agape at the sight.  


She flinched at the loud, staticky scoff that burst through a walkie-talkie, “Ugh, honestly, why should she even listen to you when she can learn traditional dance, instead of prancing around like a slutty bimbo?”  


“Please… stop… fighting!” Kaede whined, “It’s looped back to this every hour, please just make it stop!”  


“‘Every hour’?” Kyoko echoed, the biting backlash drowning into white noise as she gingerly tugged on the thread in front of her. The noose lifted from behind the pianist, but her focus on the reaction time showed her its slight delay.  


“I think there’s something on the rope, near the pulley system in the ceiling,” she said.  


Maki drew a finger to her lips, “It might be the key we were looking for. But, if it’s attached to the line that’s wrapped around her neck, we’d have to pull her off her feet-”  


“We’re not doing that!” Shuichi slammed his fists against the glass.  


“I didn’t say we were going to, but that must have been Junko’s intention.”  


“And we can’t necessarily cut it, because Kaede would still be trapped and the key would either stay up there or fall on her side of the glass,” Impostor added with a thoughtful look toward the narrow hole in the ceiling that the strand spilled from like spider silk.  


Hiyoko’s voice was suddenly cut off by Makoto, “Sayaka? What’s wrong?”  


“Makoto?” the young woman threw herself at the barrier, craning her neck to see any sign of her boyfriend hidden in the dark corners until she recognized the tone of his voice. This was from last year, when they first started dating, and he leaned in too close for comfort that brought back unsavory memories of old relationships.  


“Hey, it’s alright. I can wait for you.”  


Sayaka swallowed, her throat dry and tight, and gazed up at the rope, “Maybe, if we do it very slowly-”  


“Her body weight could crush her windpipe no matter how gentle we are,” Maki cut in, “I say we try to get up there and pull it out ourselves. Does anyone have something long and thin enough to fit through?”  


“I have something better.”  


Shuichi gasped at the sight of Kokichi, who leaned against the doorframe with a pair of picks in his hand, and the open lock dangling from a finger.  


“Surprise~” he sang. A cheerful grin graced his features while he tossed the lock over his shoulder and approached the group, unaffected by the loud ‘clang’ that resounded behind him.  


“Kokichi?” Kaede brightened, “Thank God you’re okay!”  


“Hey, I’m not ALWAYS in trouble! Oh, but, uh, we should all watch out for Mukuro, by the way.”  


“Hm, that’s almost a given,” at the doorway, Kyoko turned to the other underclassmen, “I assume you both would prefer to stay here? We have to find Makoto and Chiaki, but Kaede is still in danger in her current state, and we can’t leave her alone.”  


Maki nodded, “We’ll work on getting her free, and look for you all after. If Mukuro comes by, I won’t hesitate.”  


“No,” Imposter cut in, “You three should leave as soon as possible. This building is like a labyrinth, likely with many traps laid out for us. It’ll be safer for everyone if you turn back around once Kaede is untied.”  


From a walkie-talkie, Byakuya clicked his tongue with a smug tone, “Have you all seriously forgotten?”  


“Now that everyone’s finally present”, the girl’s voice chirped above a dull layer of static, “we can begin with addressing several issues that I’ve noticed in some of you. This will go on the whole week, and no one can skip out, even if you’re not in the spotlight. We’re doing this as a class, as friends, so we have to support one another.”  


“My, how interesting,” Celestia said, “It’s a shame that what happened next was so unfortunate.”  


“I thought I could be a good class rep if I got everyone together to work through their issues, but things got too serious and there was a really bad panic attack, some of us won’t talk and I don’t know what to do!”  


Suddenly, a chorus of chatter erupted around her, shouts and cries volleying between a scathing outburst and a tired, disappointed reply as Kaede hunched over in a weak attempt to curl into a ball atop the stool. Kokichi could make out a few lines from himself, during his argument with the class after their last show and tell. He knew she was compelled to always fix her friends’ problems, but for Junko to recognize and exploit it meant this had much more weight than he expected.  


“Here,” he pressed his picks into Kyoko’s hands, “I’m going to stay.”  


After a moment of hesitation, the girl nodded and led the rest of the group down the hallway. Alone with his classmates, he dropped his cheery visage and positioned himself directly beneath the cord.  


“Lift me up.”  


Shuichi sputtered, “Wait, I-What? But, you can’t fit in that hole, and-”  


“Just trust me, okay?”


	37. Chiaki Found

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here comes another trigger warning~   
> I'm not extremely descriptive of the injuries, but I mention blood and broken bones again.   
> Oh gosh, that won't be my niche, will it? I want my niche to be words of wisdom! Oh geez...

The pang of tightness in his chest with every breath made navigating through the vents more difficult a task than he anticipated, but Nagito pressed forward, shuffling on his elbows and knees while metal creaked beneath his weight. A left turn led him through a cobweb that stuck to his face, and as he spluttered in disgust, a faint, monotone voice from beyond the air duct caught his attention. He held his breath and waited, until the noise passed him… above? He didn’t think he was close to the staircase, since he crawled inside from that direction quite some time ago. Venturing further, the man found a dead end with an old panel covering his exit. Twisting his body around, he kicked it open and heard the sheet clash onto the floor below. Before him was a dark passage enclosed with four walls, while a pair of steel ropes swayed in the center. In an instant, the missing carriage flashed into view, and disappeared just as quickly to drop several floors. Nagito froze, before inching closer to the edge of the vent and peering down the elevator shaft, only to jerk back when it flew up once more.  


Inside her prison, Chiaki closed her eyes and felt the vertigo wash over her in an attempt to ignore the pain shooting up her legs. She assumed they were broken--or at least fractured--from her initial fall the previous night, that left her helpless on the floor as the elevator incessantly rebounded. She couldn’t muster up the courage to look at them. The cluster of screens surrounding her blared yet another news update, tablets and televisions showing a blurry video of a slender figure evading police with helicopters in tow. His dark hair flowed behind him like a shadow as he flipped over the roof of an apartment building, then caught himself on a fire escape and slipped into the darkness of the alley. Her pulse skittered when a loud ‘wham’ from above drew the woman out of her own head.  


Nagito groaned and rolled onto his side from the floor, wriggling out of the metal vent that broke off. He glanced up to see a gaping hole high in the wall, and debris that crumbled from the cracks.  


“Nagito?” Imposter quickly pulled him to his feet, “What do you think you’re doing here?”  


“Me? You went missing right before the school blew up. Care to comment?”  


They huffed, “Junko is in the middle of something big. Kaede, Chiaki, Makoto--they were taken last night and are in danger. I believe Chiaki is in the elevator, though I don’t know how to stop it and get her out.”  


“Any security?”  


“Only locked doors, to my knowledge.”  


His mind raced, but the tickle in his throat pushed up until he started to cough and wheeze, the familiar taste of copper gushing onto his tongue. In the midst of a sudden migraine, he staggered toward the nearby staircase, Imposter close behind.  


Chiaki started upright, squinting in the dimmer light as her ears strained to hear the next report. A second later, she realized the sickening motion that kept her awake had been halted.  


“Wait, what?” she asked aloud, “Did it break?”  


“Chiaki!” a muted shout rang from above the carriage before a heavy object landed atop the roof. The escape hatch screeched open, and Imposter stuck their hand through.  


“I can’t fit inside to get you. Can you stand?”  


At the ache of her legs, she winced, and shook her head, “No, but I think I can…”  


She slowly shrugged off her blazer and cream-colored hoodie, tossing the coats up to her classmate with a grunt. The sleeves sagged within reach, and she clenched them until her knuckles turned white.  


“Don’t let go.”  


“Okay, it’s just-” she sucked in a breath when her feet moved to stand, “-hard.”  


“Focus on me, Chiaki. Don’t think about the pain. We’ll get you out of here, and then you can rest.”  


“We? Who’s-NGH! Who’s ‘we’?”  


Nagito muffled another bloody cough under his hand as he watched his friend clamber out of the elevator doorway, the woman slung over Imposter’s shoulder like a ragdoll. His eyes roved down her lower half, and grimaced at the state of her mangled bones; one leg bent outward while the other appeared broken in two places, causing a section of her shin to peek out of an open gash behind her knee.  


“Earlier, you said there were ambulances at the school, right?”  


He nodded, “Yeah, and I’m sure there are at least a few hanging around right now.”  


“Good,” with their free hand, they grabbed Nagito’s wrist and held up his red-stained fingers, “because you’re getting worse, and the nurse’s office is gone.”  


The man jerked his hand away and turned toward the stairs, “I’ll be fine. Why don’t we focus on Chiaki for now, okay?”  


“I can focus on the both of you. This year has been the hardest for your health, and Mikan isn’t a doctor. She can’t give you what you really nee-”  


“You don’t get it, do you?” he nearly stumbled on the last step, and continued walking, “I don’t need anything. There’s nothing that can help me anymore. Mikan’s only been delaying the inevitable.”  


“Don’t say that, Nagito.”  


“But it’s true. I’m dying, and no one knows how much time I have left.”


	38. Chapter 38

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's one sentence in the beginning that involves a bit of gore, so once again, trigger warning.  
> I plan on more TW content in the next chapter, too, but for now it's pretty tame.

A hunk of plaster rolled down from the tall mound of rubble, as Gundham sifted through the destruction. His usually voluminous hair stuck to his forehead in a matted clump, and his hands shakily tossed another wooden beam out of the way. At his feet lay another rabbit from his research lab, her spine mangled from the collapsed ceiling that crushed her inside of her cage. The ringing in his ears stopped him from hearing Sonia join his side, until he sunk to his knees with a scream caught in his throat. His fists shot up to punch himself before she wrapped her arms around his head and drew him toward her chest. The rough blows he dealt barely fazed her, and eventually, his cries broke her into tears as well.  


“Whoever did this is gonna pay,” Mondo hissed to himself while he watched Kiyotaka speak with Mr. Shingetsu from afar. He looked back down to his phone, and began texting Takemichi.  


“You’ve got that right,” a gruff voice mumbled behind him.  


He whipped his head around to see an underclassman, Ryoma, lighting a cigarette with a plain zippo lighter. Silently, he offered one from the pack.  
“Nah, I’m good,” he brushed them off and, pulling up the sleeve of his coat, showed a patch sticking to his wrist, “Taka and his old man have a thing against smoking.”  
The pair turned back to the scene before them, as Kiyotaka followed his teacher to recount their class. They were still four people short; Mukuro had disappeared after evacuation and Makoto wasn’t found in his dorm, but paramedics searched for Kyoko and Sayaka in the ruins of Hope’s Peak. So far, thirty eight bodies were recovered throughout campus--a majority of which were Reserve Course students. And while Class 78-B was spared of casualties, Celestia suffered first-degree burns, Leon was nursing a concussion, and the smoke drove Chihiro into an asthma attack.  


“Do you think it was Enoshima?” the boy looked up at him.  


Mondo narrowed his gaze, “Honestly? Bitch would be insane enough.”  


He finished typing when his boyfriend ran up to him, pressing his lean figure against him in a tight hug.  


“What’s wrong? Did something happen?”  


Kiyotaka tilted his head and gestured toward a lumpy, white tarp soaked in blood on the asphalt. Its shape resembled a compressed car in the junkyard more than a human being, but sticking out was a tuft of dark hair like Headmaster Kirigiri.  


“Shit.”  


“Oh, shit!” Junko exclaimed from behind her phone, “We got to the top of trending news!”  


The heels of her stiletto boots clacked against the stone floor as she passed Makoto, his body limp on a leather chair. In her other hand, she stirred a bright red cherry around her martini before taking another sip. Her tongue then dipped into the glass and scooped the fruit into her mouth, stem and all.  


“Mmm, did you know tying a cherry stem with your tongue makes you a good kisser? Personally, I find choking them a little can have the same effect!”  


He grimaced, “I didn’t… realize you like cherries.”  


“I don’t~”, she sang, “It’s just a part of the drink. You can’t have a cherry martini without one, hahahaha!”  


In spite of her flawed logic, he decided not to press. Having been confined to the dank, dim room with his classmate all night, and not yet recovered from his head cold, the boy sat quietly while Junko shared every step of her plan from the previous school year. By sunrise, she had delighted in telling him of Komaru’s abduction, her kidnapper’s murder, and the continuous torment of the other students.  


“You know who does like cherries, though? Genocider Syo, which makes a lot of sense, with that nasty, slimy monster tongue she drags around.”  


“What, uh, what fruits DO you like?” he asked, before clearing his throat to ease a coughing fit.  


“Why does that matter?”  


“I don’t know, we starting talking about fruit, and I thought-”  


“No,” she droned, pulling her hair into a single ponytail and donning a pair of glasses, “that subject was an insignificant segment merely to serve a role in my feelings towards other people. It could have been replaced by a number of other topics, like sports to insult Aoi Asahina’s comically disproportionate chest size, or anime to mock Hifumi Yamada’s childish obsession with illustrating fictional characters. And the fact that you focused on such a minute point is worthy of derision.”  


Makoto blinked, stunned by the persona change he hadn’t seen in weeks. But his attention was forced away at the sound of the door creaking open.  


Sayaka pushed past her friend, “Makoto! Are you okay?!”  


“Oh, look, the detective and assistant come to ruin my fun once more,” the girl sighed, “Why couldn’t you two have been blown away, too?”  


“‘Too’?” Kyoko narrowed her eyes.  


“Yeah, ‘too’! That bomb wasn’t made of glitter and rainbows, dumbass! Mukuro, honey, give me a hand, please~”  


From behind the door, the brunette slammed it shut and pointed her handgun at Sayaka’s head, “I’m sorry.”  


“I’m sorry, Young Master,” Peko bowed her head low, “If I had been better…”  


Fuyuhiko scoffed, until the paramedic grasped his chin to tilt his head back up. The bandage taped over his right eye was freshly stained red, the crimson blotch creeping closer to the edges of gauze.  


“Nah, it’s my own fuckin’ fault. I shouldn’t have been that close to the dorm after the first explosion. What’s weird is that the dormitories blew up simultaneously to one another, but a few minutes after the bomb inside the school itself detonated. Anybody crazy enough to pull a stunt like this ain’t that careless, right?”  


“Actually,” a nearby officer stepped forward, “we believe it was intentional. This person--or group of people, most likely--wanted to cause a lot of emotional distress in survivors, rather than a high body count. That’s why none of the exits were barricaded, except for the Headmaster’s office. And if students attempted to retreat in their rooms, they’d feel safe for just a moment, before getting killed, too.”  


“So, you’re saying this piece of shit wanted us to get traumatised twice in one day or something?”  


“I’m saying their objective was to leave a bigger impact on you all besides grief.”  


Slowly, Sayaka sunk to her knees, her hands behind her head and teary eyes seething as Mukuro made her way to her sister, who happily accepted the weapon with a squeal.  


“Stop it. Just-Just stop apologizing if you’re going to continue making everyone miserable!”  


The girl lowered her gaze to her feet, “But I am.”  


“Then why keep hurting people?” Kyoko asked.  


“Because it makes Junko happy.”  


“That’s right~” she giggled, her golden locks parted into pigtails again, “I have the best big sister ever! But anyways, I guess I gotta kill you guys now. Who to start with, though?”  


“Junko,” Makoto murmured, “you don’t have to do this. You’re in complete control of your actions.”  


“Uh, DUHH! It’s just that you’re in my way, and I can NOT deal with the police anymore, they are sooo annoying.”  


The detective crossed her arms, “And what exactly is your endgame, here? You haven’t profited financially, you’re not any more popular or influential as a model than you were before, and I don’t see any changes in your interpersonal relationships. So, what was all this suffering for?”  


She stared ahead, her pupils blown, “Despair.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ehehe, hey guys... I'm back. Took a trip to the hospital that actually got me in a better place mentally, and now I have a new therapist. Everything's okay now and I'm ready to get back to my favorite pastime here! :)


End file.
